There is growing national concern about the risk that election deniers will convince local officials to refuse to certify legitimate voting results after a bizarre situation took place in Nevada, where a county commissioner refused to recognize her own victory.
Washoe County Board Commissioner Clara Andriola won her June primary by nearly 19 points over her primary challenger, Mark Lawson. Lawson requested a recount, which determined that the first count in the race was valid.
And yet, during Tuesday’s commission meeting, Andriola sided with two other Republican commissioners and decided not to certify the results of her own election.
She said there was “a lot of information shared that warrants further investigation” and that she had to vote according to her “conscience” and restore public trust after hearing many hours of public testimony about the election – some of which came from known conspiracy theorists in the Washoe community.
However, in a statement to CBS News, Andriola said she was asked to reconsider her vote on the certification at a July 16 meeting of the Board of Commissioners before the vote becomes final under the commission’s rules. She did not comment on the motivation for her initial refusal to certify the results of her own election.
Washoe County is a crucial battleground county in Nevada, which polls suggest could become a battleground state in the 2024 Presidential ElectionIt has also been a hotbed of election denialism – a movement funded by a charismatic local Trump supporter.
This week’s vote was yet another sign that local officials could be persuaded by election deniers to delay or withhold certification of election results, even when election officials concluded there was no fraud or wrongdoing in the election.
“The refusal to collect accurate election results, as required by law, could set a dangerous precedent for Nevada elections,” Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said in a statement on X. “It is unacceptable that any public official would undermine confidence in our democracy.”
The Nevada Secretary of State’s office and Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court on Wednesday asking the court to affirm the commissioners’ legal obligation to certify the election results, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said.
Certification of the vote is an administrative process by which local officials are required by law to certify the results of an election. There are very few cases in which officials are required not to certify — usually only if there is a successful court challenge to a vote, which is not the case in the Washoe contest. Certification does not necessarily mean that there were no errors in the process, and in some states it is required before lawsuits can be filed challenging the results.
But this kind of episode — in which local officials blocked the mundane administrative task of certifying the results — is emerging as a strategy among election denialists in key presidential states across the country. Election experts worry that any effort to block certification of the vote at the local level could spell trouble for the November presidential election, where there are strict deadlines for states to certify.
“Attempts to delay or thwart certification could lead to chaos and potential political violence,” said David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
“Such attempts to derail democracy are exactly what our opponents who oppose democracy want. And it appears that those who oppose American democracy are preparing to use this tactic in November, if their favored candidate loses,” Becker added.
Washoe officials aren’t alone in refusing to certify races. Recently, local officials in swing states like Michigan and Georgia have opted not to certify elections, citing concerns about the integrity of the electoral process and often facing loud expressions of distrust of votes during public comment.
In May, recruiters in Delta County, Michigan, held refused to certify a recall election after a pressure campaign by local election conspiracy activists. The officials eventually certified the race after the Michigan State Board of Elections sent the board a letter stating that the canvassers would face legal consequences if they failed to comply with their mandate to certify.
Also in May, Julie Adams, a Republican member of the Fulton County Elections Board in Georgia, refused to certify the presidential election, citing a desire to review election records related to voter rolls. She said the lack of access to primary election records meant she “could not fulfill her oath of office,” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Adams, who was appointed to the board in February, is regional coordinator for the Election Integrity Network, a powerful nationwide network of right-wing activists who promote election conspiracies. Mitchell reports to former Trump legal adviser Cleta Mitchell. Mitchell worked on a series of failed lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election and was on the phone with Trump after the election, asking Raffensperger to “find” the votes he needed to win. EIN-affiliated groups attempt to undermine the voting process and vote counting through aggressive election monitoring and a nationwide purge of voter rolls. This will likely have a particularly negative impact on minority groups and young voters who are more likely to vote Democratic.
In Washoe, the decision not to certify came as a surprise to Democratic Commissioner and Chair Alexis Hill.
“I’m a little shocked and sad,” Hill said shortly after the vote. “It’s not good for our republic, for our democracy.”
“The results of the recount show how incredibly effective our registry office is, despite all the pressures it is under,” she said.