Nevada secretary of state refuses to lift hand-count ban
Posted November 4, 2022 9:38 pm.
Last Updated November 4, 2022 9:46 pm.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s secretary of state declined to lift a ban on a rural county’s controversial hand-count of mail-in ballots Friday, saying a modified procedure the county clerk proposed still raises “concerns relating to the integrity of the election.”
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, ordered Nye County last week to halt it’s hand-counting of ballots until after polls close on Nov. 8. Her order came after the Nevada Supreme Court issued an opinion siding with the American Civil Liberties Union’s objections to the reading of individual votes out loud.
In a letter Friday explaining her refusal to accept the county’s latest proposal for a silent hand-count, Cegavske invited county officials to resubmit another alternative.
But the move makes it nearly impossible for Nye County to revise, submit and get approved plans for the hand-count of mail-in ballots before polls close on Election Day.
Gabe Stern, The Associated Press
