Road trip! Nevada GOP in the vanguard of fake voter fraud protection

This past week provided several reminders that Nevada remains on the front lines of the Republican Party’s war over fake voter fraud.

Recent developments take us on a road trip around the state in the name of a snipe hunt of epic proportions as some of Nevada’s most conservative counties scrap perfectly functional voting machines they consider suspicious in favor of paper ballots and hand counts. Insert your own high-gasoline-prices joke here, and let’s hit the highway, shall we?

First stop, Nye County, where the county commission continues its remarkably elaborate charade about the impending dangers of voter fraud linked to its use of Dominion Voting Systems machines. In March, the commission voted unanimously to scrap the machines despite zero evidence of ballot anomalies — and humiliated Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino in the process.

But who needed real evidence when there was such an abundance of the phony kind offered by the likes of Big Lie purveyors Russ Ramsland Jr., Phil Waldron, and Mark Cook? The gaggle of political prestidigitators, who claimed the machines were easily hacked, was led by Republican secretary of state candidate and 2020 election conspiracy theorist Jim Marchant.

As an aside, this past week Marchant crowed about his endorsement by nutty super Trumper and My Pillow Guy Mike Lindell. I would call Marchant a nut, but I have already used that word to describe Lindell.

Nye County’s population was 45,514, according to the 2020 census, so I suppose it’s possible to eventually hand count and recount paper ballots even if all 38,500 registered voters turned out. But if the commission doesn’t trust the trained and experienced county clerk’s office and the voting machines, who among them would they entrust with counting the votes by hand?

The politics is the same up the road in Esmeralda County, whose county commission this past week voted to return to paper ballots. Did I mention that just 1,030 or so Nevadans live in Esmeralda County, and it has approximately 630 registered voters?

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that they needed voting machines at all. Seems like a voice vote, a guy with a blackboard and a piece of chalk, or a simple show of hands would have sufficed. But the commissioners fell for the hogwash Marchant was peddling and embraced the Big Lie.

I am left to wonder just how much sense it makes to spend millions to improve internet access in the rural counties when the time-tested telegraph remains an option.

To her great credit, Esmeralda County Clerk and Treasurer LaCinda Elgan showed the courage of her convictions and noted that there were no problems with the voting machines, which weren’t even connected to the internet. The only things that got hacked were between the county commissioners’ ears.

For Marchant, it was another big win over the bogeyman.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to present alternative methods for ensuring the accuracy and transparency of the democratic voting process to the Commissioners,” Marchant thumped in a statement after the vote. “The Commissioners have made an educated decision in the spirit of protecting the voice of their constituents.”

For those who have fallen for Trump’s Big Lie to the exclusion of the pesky facts, you can trust the “expertise” of hucksters but not the character of the very people you’ve already entrusted with protecting the ballot.

Driving on, Lyon County considered changing its election system based on propaganda, then thought better of it. The decision not to jump off the roof brought cheers from the nonpartisan Let Nevadans Vote coalition and the ACLU of Nevada.

The Lincoln County Commission is also weighing the rumored evils of the Dominion machines for its 3,200 registered voters. 

Farther north, the Elko County Commission on Wednesday ruminated about returning to paper ballots, but so far has wisely chosen to stay the course for its approximately 34,000 registered voters. It uses Dominion machines.

In a moment that qualifies as downright surreal, Dominion’s interests at the meeting in Elko were represented by former Nevada Gov. Robert List, a senior member of the Republican Party.

Rather than stick to what has apparently been working, Lander County has decided to spend more than $220,000 to replace its voting machines with equipment from Election Systems & Software, Voter Registration LLC, apparently in the name of protecting its 3,500 registered voters. But that company has generated its share of controversy, too.

Meanwhile, the GOP’s battle against fake voter fraud continues apace, and the Big Lie road show continues.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.