Robert Beadles tests Washoe County election fraud claims in court

• Lawsuit claims Washoe County didn’t respond in a timely way to his election grievances and generally stonewalled him.
• Beadles is representing himself, he says, “to save his lawyers from attacks on their livelihoods.”
• The Nevada Secretary of State’s office says it’s looked into more than 700 reported violations in the 2022 elections and has found “no evidence of widespread voter fraud.”

For a year and a half, Robert Beadles has criticized Washoe County officials in public meetings, blog posts and email over election concerns. He’s now filed a lawsuit backing up his claims.

The civil lawsuit – moved to federal district court Thursday – says his election concerns have been ignored in violation of state law.

It seeks the removal of Registrar of Voters Jamie Rodriguez, County Manager Eric Brown and Commission Chair Alexis Hill. All three are named as defendants.

DA’s Office response:Beadles lawsuit ‘frivolous,’ ‘disconnected from reality’; warns of sanctions if it’s not withdrawn

Beadles, a member of the Washoe County Republican Party’s Central Committee, wants his election fraud concerns “put on the table and addressed” by Rodriguez, Brown and Hill – under court supervision.

Unless this is done, the lawsuit says, Rodriguez will be “unprepared to run the 2024 presidential primary safely, securely, and accurately as required by law.”

Kendall Holcomb, spokesperson for the Washoe County District Attorney’s Office, said it was not appropriate to comment at this time.

“However,” she said, “our office is aware of Mr. Beadles’ lawsuit, dispute the claims, and will vigorously defend our clients.”

Self-representation

Representing himself in the lawsuit, Beadles says that bringing forward legal claims of widespread election fraud opens up attorneys to be targeted.

“Plaintiff hereby represents himself pro se to save his lawyers from attacks on their livelihoods,” he writes in the lawsuit.

The Washoe County DA’s office filed a petition Thursday that moves Beadles’ lawsuit from state district court to federal court, citing the fact that Beadles claims his constitutional rights were violated.

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, about 1 in 4 federal cases involves a party representing themselves in civil litigation.

Lawsuit details

On Thursday, Beadles had delivered three flash drives and 10 binders of documents to Washoe County District Court that he says back up his complaint.

His chief concern is that county officials have generally not responded to his election grievances and stonewalled his concerns. Claiming this is illegal, he cites a section of Nevada statutes that says each voter has the right “to have complaints about elections and election contests resolved fairly, accurately and efficiently.”

The state has an official mechanism for election concerns called the Election Integrity Violation Report. Anyone can report violations of Nevada’s election laws through the Secretary of State’s website.

Beadles also calls for punitive damages “in excess of $15,000,” the standard phrasing used in Nevada civil suits.

The damages are intended to deter future election abuses and to compensate him because he’s “suffered and will continue to suffer emotional distress, reputation damage and irreparable harm” from not having his grievances answered and resolved in a timely manner, his court filing says.

The lawsuit also demands that Rodriguez, Brown and Hill be stopped from:

• “Using any voting and tabulation machines for elections in Washoe County.”
• Upgrading election equipment and software.
• And using anything other than “paper ballots at all polling locations and in every election.”

Washoe County spokesperson Bethany Drysdale told the RGJ that the county conducts fair, transparent and accurate elections.

“There is extensive, randomized and thorough testing of machines, processes and tabulation before, during and after every election,” she said by email. “There are numerous redundancies to ensure that a single mistake cannot skew the results.”

“The recent operations audit of our Elections Office and the investment we’re making into infrastructure, technology and staffing should show the public that we are dedicated to not only fair elections, but also well-run elections,” Drysdale said.

A county audit board meeting last week where Manager Brown was scheduled to go over election-process changes was shut down before he could speak. Public commenters and Washoe County Commissioner Jeanne Herman raised alarms about the agenda and the fact the board has no chair or vice-chair.

Complaints about 2022 election

Beadles’ lawsuit may lead to an examination of election concerns beyond what the state has already conducted.

During testimony before the Nevada Assembly in March, Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said his office had received more than 700 reports of possible election violations in 2022.

“Based on our staff’s reviews so far, many of them are baseless and were filed in bad faith,” he testified.

“But it is our commitment to the law and to the people of this state that every report is carefully reviewed so that if there is even a single case of potential fraud identified, we conduct an investigation and, if necessary, refer it for criminal prosecution.”

The Secretary of State’s office is still investigating some individual concerns, but nothing has been found to put primary or general election results into question.

“We have seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud or voting machine errors in Nevada during the 2022 election cycle,” Aguilar testified at a February joint legislative meeting.

Previous lawsuits

In 2022, Beadles lost a lawsuit seeking heightened observation of Washoe County’s vote-counting process. 

It claimed that during vote counting for the 2020 election in Washoe County, “numerous individuals attempting to observe the process were prevented from doing so in any meaningful way.”

Washoe County District Judge Egan Walker ruled there was “no competent evidence” to support these claims.

Beadles was also involved in a lawsuit by Reno attorney Joey Gilbert.

It claimed voter fraud in the Republican primary where official results showed Gilbert losing to Joe Lombardo by about 26,000 votes. Gilbert believed he won by 50,000 votes but that he’d been thwarted by a mysterious algorithm that switched votes away from him.

Beadles’ new lawsuit makes a similar claim that the 2022 elections in Washoe County were “tainted by allowing and failing to address illegal functions within the election system that alter intended votes.”

When Carson City District Judge James Wilson addressed this same issue in the Gilbert lawsuit, he found a “clear absence” of “competent evidence” to support the claim.

Mark Robison covers local government for the Reno Gazette-Journal. His wages are 100% funded by donations and grants; his journalism is done in the public good and always free for all to read. If you’d like to see more stories like this one, please consider donating at RGJ.com/donate.

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