Would You Take Robert Beadles Money for a Recount?
Recap of our recent reporting plus bonus content.
As soon as it was confirmed Robert Beadles was behind the upfront payment for all three primary recounts which will start tomorrow, for two now long shots with many votes to catch up and allies on many extreme right positions of the crypto made political agitator (Mark Lawson in a Republican County Commission primary and Paul White in a school race), plus for Lily Baran, the progressive just 15 votes behind for second place in the Reno Ward 1 City Council race, calls started to be made among friends and multiple comments were made on social media, some in deep disbelief disappointment, others in staunch support.
On an earlier Our Town Reno post, Baran’s campaign manager Erika Minaberry wrote that “recounts is built into his entire identity at this point — it would look more bizarre for him *not* pay for a recount,” to which another commenter noted not all races were going through this redo vote counting procedure, at an estimated cost of $50,560 for each.
Baran then released her own statement, basically indicating she had a very short delay to come up with this very large sum, and that she felt in cases of such close tallies there should be an automatic recount, which isn’t the case in Nevada, as it is in several other dozen states.
“This does not change my politics. It doesn’t make me an election denier or a conspiracy theorist,” she said in the nearly four minute video posted on her Instagram. “I’m here to represent people that are disenfranchised.”
In the video, Baran says Beadles money in this case will be well spent to make sure every vote in the Ward 1 primary race is counted. She says she talked to voters who told her their votes were not counted when they thought these should have been.
“I chose the voters, that’s what I chose,” she explained.
Baran said she had conversations with people working for her campaign, from the legal community and former employers who agreed with this decision.
“No one stands behind hateful rhetoric or policies, this is not what that is. This is getting a recount for my specific election,” she said. “This was a decision for the voters, and that’s all this is,” she concluded.
Others on social media have wondered if these payments are legal and in line with campaign finance laws, as it’s stated it’s the candidates who need to pay for the recounts, and $50,000 is well above maximum campaign contributions or legal defense funds.
In a follow up text, addressing some of the comments she is receiving or seeing, Baran who has been on the front lines of local activism for renters, mutual aid and the unhoused in recent years, told Our Town Reno that she’d hoped for “this outrage when the number went from 90 something to 135 of our neighbors experiencing homelessness who lost their lives due to unscientific harmful approaches that criminalize homelessness … We have to remember in a year after these recorded deaths a vote passed by majority that promised to meet with stakeholders and … nothing was done. Where is the outrage when people are dying?”
A special meeting of the Reno City Council will take place July 3rd at 10 a.m. with public comment for the Ward 1 recount, while the County has scheduled a canvass for all three recounts Tuesday July 2nd at 8 a.m.. If results are reversed, the candidate who asked for a recount is reimbursed.
Our Recent Reporting
Recount Requested in Three Local Primary Races
Outrage Reigns at Washoe County School Board, while Trustee Kicked out of County GOP
Laurie, Dealing with Loss, while Paying to Sleep in her Tent
