Republicans take Las Vegas-area poll worker dispute to court

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Republican National Committee is asking a Nevada judge to order election officials in Las Vegas to hire more GOP poll workers to correct what a legal filing calls a disproportionate imbalance favoring Democrats.

A Clark County District Court judge is scheduled on Wednesday to consider accusations that county elections chief Joe Gloria “stacked” a key ballot signature verification board with 23 Democrats, 33 nonpartisans and “a mere” eight Republicans.

Dan Kulin, spokesman for Gloria, declined Monday to comment on a matter pending before a judge.

“The registrar’s lopsided staffing of the signature verification board is not remotely ‘as equal as possible’” under state law, attorneys representing the RNC alleged in a document filed Friday. “He created a signature verification board with a partisan makeup that tilts sharply against Republicans.”

Judge Timothy Williams had signed off Oct. 5 on a pact between the two sides after the county agreed to provide to the RNC a roster showing job titles and political party affiliations of poll workers. The RNC dropped a demand to obtain workers’ names.

If a signature on a mail-in ballot isn’t confirmed by an electronic machine reader, “signature verification board members render the important decision” about whether the ballot is counted immediately or set aside to check the signature by calling the voter for what election officials call a “cure” process, attorneys for the RNC argue.

Voter registration leans Democratic in Clark County, the most populous area of Nevada and home to nearly 1.3 million, or more than 71%, of the state’s 1.8 million active registered voters. More than 102,000 people have already voted in advance of election day Nov. 8, according to the county elections website.

“To be clear, the RNC does not seek to stop any voting or mail-in ballot processing. Nor does it seek to undo any completed processing,” the court filing said. “The RNC only seeks immediate corrective action.”