Nevada County Reverses Controversial Vote, Certifies Two Recounts as Legal Action Looms

RENO, Nevada – Commissioners in Nevada’s second-most populous county certified the results of two local recounts Tuesday, reversing course on a controversial vote against certification that spurred legal action and placed Washoe County in uncharted legal territory.

The 4-1 decision overturns last week’s vote against certifying the results of the June primary recount in the politically mixed northern Nevada region that includes Reno. The rare change had potential implications for how the November elections could happen in one of the most important swing counties in the country.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford are still waiting for the state Supreme Court to resolve a petition filed last week that seeks to confirm county commissioners’ legal obligations to certify election results. While it’s unclear if or when the court will accept that, a ruling could set a precedent and apply to county commissions across the state that refuse to certify results in November.

Aguilar had said that the circumstances of last week’s vote could set “a dangerous precedent” that undermines voter confidence.

Moments before retaking the vote on Tuesday, Chief Deputy County Attorney Mary Kandaras recommended that commissioners certify the vote to follow state law.

Once seen as a mundane, ministerial task, electoral certification has become a pressure point since the 2020 elections. During the midterm elections two years later, a similar scenario to what is happening in Washoe County occurred in New Mexico after that state’s primary when a rural county delayed certifying the results and gave in only after the secretary of state appealed to the state supreme court.

Two Republican Washoe County commissioners, Jeanne Herman and Mike Clark, have consistently voted against certifying the results and are supported by the wider far-right movement within the county that promotes election conspiracy theories.

But on Tuesday, Clark apologized to his constituents before changing his vote in favor of certification. He said he took the vote after being told that the commission’s certification is not discretionary. He said his vote took place “under extreme pressure, under threat of both my position and prosecution.” Throughout the meeting, he doubled down on his distrust of the county’s election results.

“I’m not going to call this a vote, because it’s not a vote,” he said before voting to certify the recounts. “We are compelled and we have to do it.”

Republican Commissioner Clara Andriola, who the far-right movement had targeted in the primaries, also reversed course on Tuesday. She has often been the swing vote in election votes — rejecting the election denier label and thanking the county elections department while claiming that several “hiccups” in the process required more government bodies to review the county’s election processes.

On Tuesday, Andriola said he more recently met with the county’s interim registrar of voters, who gave him more confidence about how elections are conducted in Washoe County. She also spoke with the county district attorney’s office, which she said made clear that the commission’s duty is to certify election results without discretion.

“Our responsibility is to follow the law,” Andriola said.

The local far-right movement has been on full display at commission meetings, where conspiracy theories about voting machines and distrust of election administrators became a mainstay during the commission’s public comment sections and led to harassment and high turnover at the local election office for the past four years.

Amid the rapid turnover of election staff, the county elections department also made some administrative errors, such as mailing ballots to voters who chose not to receive them and incorrectly printing certain local sample ballots, though none that affected the count.

On Tuesday, most commentators urged commissioners not to certify the results. Some repeated false claims of stolen elections, broken machines and a “conspiracy” within the county that undermines elections. Others called for a manual recount or a complete redo of the election.

One commenter printed photos of city and county officials she accused of corruption. Several times, commission chairman Alexis Hill threatened to go into recess when public comment was interrupted or delved into calling individuals rather than the board itself. Some commentators called on the commissioners to certify the vote.

“Stand your ground, stay the course. You showed courage last week. Don’t lose now,” said Bruce Parks, chairman of the Washoe Republican Party, who falsely claimed Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election.