While local voting suits end with no action, it's onto the decisive round
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The two remaining local election lawsuits seeking hand recounts and individual inspections of ballots have ended with a whimper, meaning focus is now fully on decisive November voting.
A third lawsuit by the only candidate with a reasonable chance to reverse a close vote, Reno city council candidate Lily Baran, was stopped before the recount was finalized.
County Commission District 4 candidate Mark Lawson had his suit dismissed in court last week, while school board candidate Paul White asked to dismiss his case after unfavorable comments by District Court Judge Kathleen Drakulich.
In another challenge in the District 4 race, the Secretary of State’s office rejected an appeal by non partisan hopeful Marsy Kupfersmith. She was trying to get on the ballot in November, despite the Registrar of Voters’ office finding her petition to qualify for the election lacked valid signatures.
That means the Republican Andriola, who was initially appointed to the seat as an in term replacement by Governor Joe Lombardo, has no opposition for November, with no Democrat running in that race. Â
Meanwhile, Assembly candidate Drew Ribar who was missing from sample ballots had his request to have the primary election rerun denied after the Nevada Supreme Court said in part he should have taken legal action before it concluded.
The Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar released a report last month indicating that while election related complaints to his office have increased dramatically, very few election laws have been broken, with just two so far having been deemed to constitute violations out of nearly 450 reports received.
At the county level, election officials have been working to clean up voter rolls, after 25-thousand notification cards sent to registered voters in the primary were returned as undeliverable.
This all clears the way for a few possibly competitive races, including at the county level, a rematch between Democratic Commissioner Alexis Hill and Republican Marsha Berkbigler in District 1.
At the redrawn Reno City Council level, it will be appointed incumbent Kathleen Taylor versus Frank Perez in Ward 1, another appointed incumbent Miguel Martinez against Denise Myer in Ward 3, current at-large incumbent Devon Reese against Brian Cassidy in Ward 5 and Brandi Anderson against Tom Heck in the new Ward 6.
With a swingy top of the ticket presidential race, and Washoe County being one of the swingiest counties in one of the few competitive states in 2024, turnout should be high and tensions escalated come November. As always, our community should pay close attention to down ballot races as well.
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