The Republican National Committee (RNC) is escalating its push for transparency from election officials in Clark County, Nevada, when it c...
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is escalating its push for transparency from election officials in Clark County, Nevada, when it comes to poll worker selection criteria.
Officials from the Clark County Election Department in Nevada have thus far been unclear with the GOP on questions about whether an equal amount of GOP and Democrat poll workers will be present during the midterm elections, Breitbart News has learned. As such, Republicans are escalating efforts to get answers and sort the issue out far ahead of the election with actions that could include litigation.
The RNC is utilizing its multi-pronged election integrity apparatus to go full watchdog on Clark County officials, home to two-thirds of Nevada voters, ahead of some of the most important political races in the nation. The committee set its sights on Nevada soon after the 2020 presidential election and in 2021, when Democrats in the state used the coronavirus pandemic to codify less-secure voting laws via Assembly Bill 321, such as sending every Nevada voter a mail-in ballot.
While one such law mandates a bipartisan makeup of poll workers, the RNC says its vagueness could provide a potential loophole for Democrat overreach — something the committee wants shut tight before the midterm elections. According to RNC officials, the committee has been in talks for months with party lawyers and county officials about poll worker proportions, observer access [especially in counting mail ballots], as well as following election laws to make sure only legal ballots are counted. But the committee has “not received assurances” from officials as to how the county selects and places poll workers.
Breitbart News also reached out to officials asking if it ensures there are an even amount of poll workers from both parties at polling locations, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
RNC spokesperson Gates McGavick said the committee could be willing to take more action if it does not receive answers to its questions on election transparency.
“The Republican National Committee is committed to stopping Democrat election overreach, ensuring bipartisan representation among poll workers, and promoting transparency at the ballot box in Nevada. We are leaving all options on the table, including litigation, to achieve those aims,” McGavick told Breitbart News on Thursday.
As Breitbart News reported last year, the RNC realized it was time to jump on offense following the 2020 presidential election, “after seeing what the Democrats did in a months-long tumultuous and coordinated push from long before Election Day until weeks afterward filled with mail and absentee voting, drop boxes, a lack of ID and signature matching requirements all combined with kicking poll watchers out of counting rooms, and massive funding surges from leftist big tech moguls like Mark Zuckerberg who funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into state and local election offices nationwide through popup nonprofits he and his wife established.”
In this November 5, 2020, file photo, a county election worker scans mail-in ballots at a tabulating area at the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Besides tackling improper voting laws through litigation, the committee fully-staffed its structure nationwide with full-time election integrity directors in key states coast to coast. In Nevada, the RNC has five election integrity paid staff in-state, has conducted over 200 election integrity trainings for nearly 2,000 poll watchers. They also provide information to volunteers about how to become a poll worker, although they do not train poll workers themselves.
In this November 2, 2020, file photo, a county worker collects mail-in ballots in a drive-thru mail-in ballot drop off area at the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
In Nevada’s primary election, the RNC activated 790 poll watchers, and reported “100 percent coverage of priority Election Day polling locations, 100 percent early vote, election day, and post-election coverage at Washoe County ballot processing facility, and 100 percent early vote, election day, and post-election coverage at Clark County ballot processing facility.”
A Clark County election worker checks a voting machine among others that are boxed up at the Clark County Election Department on November 6, 2020 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
And while the RNC has not gotten answers about poll workers, it has retained two in-state election integrity counsels and submitted 62 public records requests about topics like list maintenance and signature verification. The RNC’s lawyers have also obtained concessions from Clark County ensuring greater access for election observers than in past elections, committee officials say.
But as the RNC turns itself into a formidable foe against the Democrat machine, far-left corporate media outlets are already saying the committee’s election integrity efforts “set off alarms.”
For example, CNN reported in June that the RNC’s recruitment efforts “have raised alarms that Republican election deniers could infiltrate official election operations and undermine the process.” Vanity Fair similarly characterized the RNC’s poll watcher initiative as “an apparent effort to undermine the legitimacy of election results.”
But left-wing groups are certainly not shy about recruiting friendly volunteers. For example, before the 2020 election, a slew of left-wing activist groups, former and current Democratic politicians, as well as anti-Trump celebrities, athletes, and corporations have teamed up and recruited over 600,000 “healthy, low-risk and diverse poll workers.”
McGavick said those kinds of corporate media claims are evidence that Democrats fear being held accountable in an area where they have been dominant for a long time.
“Republicans are fighting for equal representation for poll watchers and poll workers because polling shows that Americans want bipartisan observation at the ballot box. It speaks volumes that Democrats are so hesitant to provide an even playing field: meanwhile, we’ll continue our efforts to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in Nevada and nationwide,” he said.
Nevada is home to two of the most important upcoming races in the nation: a face-off between Trump-endorsed former Attorney General Adam Laxalt and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), and between Trump-endorsed Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). Both races are extremely tight in recent polling, reflecting the longstanding purple nature of the Silver State.
To the RNC, closely monitoring a likely toss-up election could mean the difference between continued Democrat leadership or a GOP transformation in the state.
“It is more important to elect Joe Lombardo as the Silver State’s next governor and a Republican legislature in November to repeal Assembly Bill 321 and end the reckless practices of automatically mailing live ballots and legalized ballot harvesting in the Silver State,” McGavick said.
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