Swing state officials ready to shut down attempts to deny certification

We saw election denial in 2020 when local officials refused to certify the election. Since more than two dozen local officials across the nation have refused to certify federal elections in recent years, we may have a problem. However, election experts say officials in swing states are poised to shut down attempts to deny certification.

Most Americans are done with the chaos and violence that followed after Joe Biden defeated Donald J. Trump. This time, however, using Nevada as an example, conspiracy-laden denial won’t work.

Pr rEPORTS:

Washoe County is home to about half a million people and borders Lake Tahoe. The county seat, Reno, bills itself as “The Biggest Small City in the World” and is surrounded by snow-capped mountains this time of year. In July, Washoe County commissioners voted 3-2 against certifying recounts of two primary election results.

No one here could recall local officials denying certification in Nevada before. Certification of elections is simply a clerical duty with no discretion as to how to vote, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. Any confusion about the election results can be taken to court.

But several Washoe commissioners said they were concerned about the way the election was handled.

“I’m not going to co-sign on this,” Commissioner Mike Clark, a Republican, said at the time during a public meeting. “I won’t say how great it was because I don’t believe it.”

US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House chamber of the US Capitol on March 7.
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Members of the public, many of them election deniers, also attended the meeting and claimed there was a conspiracy.

“Our election was hijacked by someone or something,” said Robert Beadles, a denier who has given more than $800,000 to GOP candidates in the past two years. “You cannot certify this recount.”

In fact, for all the concerns about the accuracy of primary elections in Washoe, the recount found a difference of only two votes in the two races.

You don’t say. That won’t happen this time.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said he was shocked that commissioners refused to certify, but he was prepared. He told NPR that he filed legal documents beforehand and then just filled in the details of the case. “I call it our ‘Mad Libs,'” Aguilar said.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed suit against the three commissioners who voted against certification. A week later, at a commissioners’ meeting, Clark and fellow commissioner Clara Andriola they changed their votes to certify. “I was told that failure to vote to certify this election could subject me to criminal prosecution and removal from office,” Clark said during the meeting. “As such, my vote today comes under extreme duress.”

That poor guy. He feels “under extreme duress” just for doing his job. The Donald loves chaos, but Americans, to borrow a phrase, are ready to “turn the page.”

Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, sees the Washoe case as an encouraging sign for the nation as voting in the 2024 election closes today. He said it shows that attorneys general have the will and tools to secure certification.

“It’s something that should be pointed out to the voters because the confidence of the voters should not be diminished,” Sus said. “These efforts (not to certify) will not work. They haven’t worked historically and they won’t work this time.”

I’m not nervous about the election at all. By the way, is it 5 o’clock?