Mail ballot No. 2
Here at the New to Las Vegas world headquarters, I’m not one of those folks who thinks voter fraud is a significant problem, either here or around the country. I see efforts talking up the issue more as a campaign ploy by Republican- and conservative-leaning interests to suppress voting by Democratic- and liberal-leaning interests. It’s a sad commentary of what we’ve become.
Still, it’s not a good thing that for the upcoming June 11 primary elections in Nevada I was mailed two identical ballots a few days apart by the Clark County Election Department, each with a postage prepaid envelope for return. A little more worse, I now suspect election officials, who work for the Democrats who control the county government, covered up their incompetence. I think this is lest they give fuel to rival Republicans who have focused on absentee voting, nationally but especially in Nevada.
The second one arrived over the Memorial Day weekend a couple days after I filled out and mailed the first one. It was alarming. But the flyers accompanying the ballot had a page headlined “CONTACT US” in all-capital letters with a phone number. So I did.
A telephone rep, presumably at the Clark County Election Department, answered the phone. I explained my situation. She told me–perhaps reading from a script or email–that 240 duplicate ballots were “accidentally” sent out to voters. She said the ballot had different batch numbers and she would tell me which one to mail and which one to tear up into pieces and discard. But after I told her I already had voted the first one, she said, “it does not matter which one is sent,” presumably meaning it also didn’t matter which one I tore up into pieces and discarded.
Fair enough. I then asked if her agency knew who had gotten the duplicate ballots. Yes, she said. Then why didn’t the agency reach out to warn those folks, especially if it was such a small number (there are something like 1.3 million registered voters in Clark County) and double-voting is a Category D felony in Nevada with potential devastating personal consequences? I didn’t get an answer.
When did the Election Department first realize this was a problem? Sometime last week, the rep told me told. Was I the first voter to get in touch after getting two ballots? “No.” Did her agency issue a public press release about the error? No. Why not? Again, no good answer.
I suggested this was a bad situation given all the controversy over mail voting. “Not a good look,” she agreed.
The home page of the Clark County Election Department has a section called “Current Interest” that is updated frequently. You might think that would be an appropriate spot for a headline like “Warning: Some Voters Received Duplicate Ballots and Must Tear Up One Into Piece and Discard to Avoid Committing a Category D Felony.”
You would be terribly wrong. Crickets.
As a long-time journalist, I’ve never been registered as a voter with a party affiliation. In Nevada I am classified as Nonpartisan. Since I live in unincorporated Clark County, the two ballots I received asked my choice in just four minor judicial races. Three of the four were uncontested, with just one listed candidate. Since Nevada law prohibits write-ins, there wasn’t much for me to do. But my ballot was so lackluster and even meaningless that it’s quite possible someone else in a similar situation might have voted both ballots not remembering submitting the first one. A category D Felony?
I haven’t bothered reaching out to anyone higher up in the county. However, a few functionaries get quick notices of my blog posts when they are published. I welcome them (or anyone else) to comment below. Or alert all affected voters. Or issue a press release with a truthful explanation. Or in some way simply end what I perceive as a cover-up.