Nevada secretary of state declines to lift hand-count ban

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By GABE STERN

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada’s secretary of state declined Friday to lift a ban on a rural county’s controversial early hand-count of mail-in ballots, saying a modified procedure the county clerk proposed still raises “concerns relating to the integrity of the election.”

Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske ordered Nye County last week to halt its 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 to the county Friday, Cegavske invited county officials to update or better explain their proposal for a silent hand-count with more details.

But the move makes it increasingly difficult for Nye County to revise, submit, get approval and carry out plans for the hand-count of mail-in ballots before polls close on Election Day.



FILE - Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske attends the summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Baton Rouge, La., on July 8, 2022. Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske ordered Nye County last week to halt its 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. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-nevada-reno-barbara-cegavske-4366bc3882e828dd6eab3d8a1c90d954

[Mr.Bill]

1. Nye County, Nevada.

I watch On Patrol, the new version of Live PD. Nye County is one of the places they visit. Now, I know shows like this don't show the world the best and brightest of citizens, and I'm sure there are plenty of good prople there.

But damn, there are people on that show from many areas that I hope are not voting at all.

[pecosbob]

7. Naw...Nye county is pretty much tin-foil hat country

[mahina]

2. They want to be able to read our individual vote counts out loud identified by person?

[paleotn]

3. I wouldn't think so, but might be wrong...

Not sure how Nevada does it, but I've never put my name or any identifying info on a ballot...that I know of. Usually, the poll ladies mark me off as voted and just hand me a ballot from a stack.

[Mr.Bill]

4. Same here in California

and I think everywhere, whether paper or electronic ballot, there is no record of who you voted for.

[ToxMarz]

5. These are mail in ballots, I'm not sure what's on them

but they must somehow be tied to a registered voter and/or signed in some places.

[Mr.Bill]

9. Our mail-in ballots are signed by the voter

only on the outside of the envelope. The only way the marked ballot is tied to the voter is that it is sealed inside the envelope. Once the signature on the outside of the envelope is verified the envelope is opened and the ballot goes into an anonymous stack of ballots the same as ballots that went into a ballot box.

[truthisfreedom]

10. Same in Minnesota

We get our mail-in ballot kit in the mail in a big envelope, and inside that are three more envelopes like Russian nesting dolls. The biggest is a prepaid return envelope, the next smaller is one I fill out with my voter info and the witness’s signature appears on, and the smallest is a plain blue unmarked envelope that holds my ballot, which contains only my black dot votes.

[Kaleva]

13. The return envelopes are signed but not the ballots

[paleotn]

14. Same here in VT. Unless they keep the two together....

there's no way of linking a vote to an actual voter. As it should be.

[Kaleva]

15. A poll worker could open the return envelope and then look at the ballot

It's a crime for an election official in Michigan to disclose to anyone else how a voter voted

[Old Crank]

11. The first report thar I read

Had one person reading the name of the person who the vote was for. A second person who was observing the reader to confirm and three people separately tallying. Then the tallies should all be the same. You would need a person from each party for the first two, article didn't confirm this, and a split for the talliers.
The original complaint was that reading the names out meant that the vote was being announced prior to election day.

[mahina]

12. Thank you

[Grins]

6. It's always conservative Republicans...

Every. Time…

[pecosbob]

8. What's interesting is that the incumbent Repub SOS is siding with the Courts and the ACLU

The current Repub candidate for Secretary of State is a Stop-the-Stealer.