During a rally in a circus tent spiked into the sun-broiled blacktop of an East Las Vegas shopping center two days before Nevada’s June 14 primary elections, Joey Gilbert claimed there was fraud afoot in his Republican gubernatorial primary against Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Gilbert, a Reno attorney and former professional boxer endorsed by the state GOP committee, told The Epoch Times his campaign had documented what they allege were irregularities by Clark County elections officials on behalf of “establishment” Republicans conspiring to thwart his ascension to the governor’s office.
He would not go into specifics two days before the election, but said should he lose his GOP gubernatorial primary, his campaign would provide those details in a lawsuit that exposed the alleged machinations.
Gilbert lost the election but has never conceded, demanding a recount in July that confirmed the results, and then following through with a lawsuit tentatively set to be heard in a Carson County court beginning Aug. 12.
Lombardo won the election, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, garnering 38.4 percent of the tally to pace an eight-candidate field. Endorsed by former President Donald Trump, Lombardo is set to challenge Democrat incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak in the Nov. 8 election.
Gilbert finished second with 27 percent of the vote, collecting 61,738 votes—26,000 fewer than Lombardo.
Despite that seemingly convincing gap, on Election Night, Gilbert in Twitter posts alleged there had been “conflicting reports” that mail-in ballots “would not be counted for three days.”
“I can only imagine why that is—so ’they' know the vote totals from the early voting and the Election Day voting and then can use the ’mail-in ballots’ to make up the difference where needed,” Gilbert said.
In another Election Night Twitter post, Gilbert said he “will concede nothing” and insisted Lombardo had not won. “Maybe the establishment and swamp rats forgot who they’re dealing with,” he said.
True to his word, Gilbert has not conceded, In fact, his campaign is still active, soliciting donations and issuing candidate-like statements.
In an Aug. 7 email to supporters, Gilbert wrote, “As your Governor I will earn your trust every day by standing for truth, justice, and freedom of choice. Together we will bring prosperity back to Nevada and restore People’s trust in our Government. Are you ready to make a difference?”
The email includes “just 4 simple questions to answer” about “evaluating elected officials in 2022.”
Gilbert continues: “Over the last 22 months, have they ... Censored the truth about Covid or denied that we have election integrity problems? Peddled the fear? Did they play the game—which means participating in the unconstitutional mandates and restrictions forced upon us. Did they mandate anything? If they have done ANY of these things, they CANNOT be trusted. Click here to contribute to Gilbert for Governor now.”
In an Aug. 3 video, Gilbert reiterates he will “never concede” that he lost the June 14 primary to Lombardo.
“How can you concede you LOST something that was—in fact—illegally TAKEN from you?” Gilbert asserts in the video.
Gilbert claims in the video that 55,000 ballots “were manipulated in Clark County alone,” enough for him to win the race in a landslide.
“The detailed explanation, evidence, and proof of how the ballot count was manipulated will be posted” on Gilbert’s website, he said, adding if the “judge is an honest, God-fearing individual—impartially weighs the evidence we’ve presented—and follows the U.S. Constitution, then we will prevail.”
Gilbert’s campaign filed a 27-page lawsuit in Carson County District Court before Judge James Wilson on July 15.
The suit claims “votes as counted and as announced produce a mathematical and geometrically impossible result” and an “illegal geometric formula” was used to “alter the election results.”
The lawsuit demands results of the GOP primary be annulled, certification denied, and an alleged “illegal-geometry utilized in the count and recount of the vote be mathematically corrected.”
The lawsuit, as well as the recount—which determined a difference of just one vote from initial reported tallies—is funded by cryptocurrency millionaire Robert Beadles, who operates an election integrity website, Operation Sunlight, on where he insists Gilbert “rightfully won the primary with 100 percent certainty.”
“It’s simple; we prove with mathematical certainty Joey Gilbert is the winner of the primary gubernatorial race and that he had over 55,000 votes taken from him,” Beadles wrote. “It’s a slam dunk case. We’ll post the suit, the exhibits, opinions, etc., as soon as the State publishes them.”
Allegations in the suit claim:
— Nevada Revised Statutes that require ballot secrecy “were all violated by placing voter name, party, precinct number, voter ID info, and bar code on every ballot envelope for all to see.”
— Ballots received by Registrars of Voters (ROV) in Clark and Washoe counties “did not have proper chain of custody.”
— Internet ‘MiFi,’ a portable broadband device that allows multiple end-users and mobile devices to share a mobile broadband Internet connection and create an ad-hoc network, “is/was hooked up to … all voting machines,” meaning results were accessible via the internet in violation of state law, as “confirmed by the (Washoe County) Assistant Registrar of Voters Heather Carmen” during deposition on video.
— “Court orders regarding the observation of the election process were violated.”
— Carmen and Washoe County Government Affairs Manager Jamie Rodriguez are on the deposition video acknowledging violations, including the fact that they starting tabulating votes the week prior, “not surprisingly, with no observation. There was a violation of (Nevada statutory) requirements for equal representation from both parties for election workers.”
— “Signature verification was improperly conducted or not conducted at all.”
— The suit claims “44,000 non-partisan voters—who are breaking party at a 4:1 to 6:1 ratio to vote for Republicans that were freedom candidates, especially ‘America First’ and for ‘We The People’ candidates—were disenfranchised by the DMV and government.”
The suit states, “Voters were segregated by party; Republicans were told to use a certain machine and place ballots in a certain box, different from Democrats and Non-Partisans.”
“At least 44,000 voters that we know about lost their ability to vote. This cannot be allowed to stand, or nothing will change in Nevada come November,” Gilbert alleged in a July statement accompanying the suit. “If what occurred during the primary election occurs again, based on the numbers, Nevada won’t have the red wave it should have because of the aforementioned serious concerns, and you can expect to have another four years of Sisolak.”
Lombardo Campaign Responds
The Lombardo campaign has episodically dismissed the claims and is concentrating on defeating Sisolak in the race that is projected to be a toss-up.
Former state Sen. Dean Heller, who finished a distant third in the GOP gubernatorial primary, in a statement posted by Lombardo’s campaign, said Gilbert’s suit and those like them are “almost always counterproductive and can do serious damage to the reputation of the Republican Party.”
