President Donald Trump vowed Republicans would take legal action against sweeping changes in Nevada election law rushed through the Democrat-controlled legislature over the weekend. The changes would allow widespread voting-by-mail as well as so-called ballot harvesting in the upcoming Nov. 3 election.
“Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!”
Trump actually wrote his message in a retweet of a tweet from the day before by Ronna McDaniel, who heads the Republican National Committee.
On July 30, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, issued a formal proclamation calling the Nevada Legislature into a special session beginning at 9 a.m. on July 31 to, in the words of a press release, “address significant policy issues that cannot wait until the regularly scheduled legislative session.” One of the agenda items he listed was “ensuring Nevadans can exercise their fundamental right to vote in a way that does not dangerously expose them to increased risk of COVID-19 infection.”
The legislative measure, known as AB4, passed the Assembly 29-12 on July 31, and the Senate 13-8 on Aug. 2. One provision in the bill allows the governor, not the secretary of state who normally administers the electoral process, to determine how polling places operate in an emergency.
“Gov. Sisolak and the NV Dems called a special session with no public present and inside 24 hours are ramming through mail-in balloting and ballot harvesting. They are massively altering our election 97 days out entirely without the SecState. They are working to steal our election.”
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, reportedly said on July 31 that she preferred returning to in-person balloting after some problems erupted during the state’s recent vote-by-mail primary election. That method of voting was challenged but a federal judge refused to intervene. She added she would need an extra $5 million to be appropriated to cover a second all-mail election.
“This is outrageous. Must be met with immediate litigation!” He added the Twitter user name @GOPChairwoman to his tweet, which corresponds to RNC chief McDaniel.
During the Nevada primaries, Trump also tweeted his displeasure with voting-by-mail, writing May 20:
“State of Nevada ‘thinks’ that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, ‘I think’ I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections.”
AB4 now goes to the governor for his signature.
Lawmakers shared their thoughts on the bill.
Republicans said there was no reason to rush the legislation and that it was inappropriate to make significant changes to election law during a special sitting of the legislature.
“I cannot even begin to try and predict what effect this will have on our state, and on our election process,” said Assemblywoman Melissa Hardy, a Republican. “This bill swings the pendulum to an extreme without having time to research its unintended consequences.”
Republicans claim that states like Democratic-controlled California and Nevada are enacting ballot harvesting laws, which allow organized workers or volunteers to collect absentee ballots from voters and deliver those ballots to a polling place, to make it easier for the votes of illegal aliens and those not interested in the political process to be cast. Democrats counter that they are trying to make sure that exercising democratic rights should be as easy as possible and that they want everyone’s vote to count.
