Count hands with four, not all from the same party. Table centers are at least 10 feet apart. He counted 20 ballots at a time.
These were announced by theNevadastate secretary as the county continued to push for a way to count paper ballots by hand in several rural areas of the state. Some of the rules suggesting how to count ballots by hand. Election misinformation is growing, including mistrust of voting machines.
Mark Wlaschin, Nevada's Undersecretary of State for Elections, said the regulation had been in the making for almost a year and did not directly respond to events in Nye County. The Electoral Commission resigned last month after an election conspiracy successfully pushed hand-counted ballots. As county-level election administrators, we try to be proactive," he said of the guidelines, which he plans to discuss in an online meeting with the public Friday to get feedback. November elections if approved later this month.
Urashin said the rule will help counties that choose to switch to manual tallying systems, eliminating the need for clerks to create rules from scratch. It also creates a unified structure to ensure states can conduct elections. If the county wants to switch to counting by hand, he says, "at least for now, I won't be tasking a clerk with [conducting] his year-long study to develop his own template." said.
Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to address election machinations that distrust voting machines. Nevada's least populated county, Esmeralda, was already using manual counting during the certification of June primary election results. It took him more than seven hours to cast 317 votes.
"Many states and local governments are urging them to do this among their supporters," he said. Derek Tisler, an attorney at the Brennan Center, said. For Justice's Democracy Program.
Proponents of manual counting describe the outdated method as a way to deal with mistrust of elections, especially unproven claims that voting machines are hackable and unreliable.
Hand His Count At the center of his push is former PresidentDonald Trump} winning his 2020 election. With the help of his merchant, Jim, the Republican candidate for Secretary of State and leader of the "American Presidential Election," he framed a new ballot counting plan that would transform local county elections. created. The first coalition of candidates to deny the validity of the 2020 election results.At a candidate forum in February, Merchant told the crowd, "Your vote has not been counted for decades."
Those who have previously lobbied to switch to handcounting, such as Kampf, Marchant, are used to questioning the procedures used in 2020. -Tally fairly and accurately. How will we get the bipartisan workers needed to tally votes under the proposed guidelines. The same office that has been sowing seeds of distrust since 2020 And how do they work? He said his views on the election were not related to his new job.
"I would never jeopardize the vote. The integrity of the vote i would never in this county," he said. I was.
Hand counting will be parallel to a parallel tallying process using the same machines currently used to count mail-in ballots.
Kamp said he agrees with many of the state's proposed hand-counting rules, but believes the team should count 50 votes at a time instead of 20.
"If it is passed as is, I will have to comply with the law," he said. "I may not like the law, but as a clerk, I must obey the law." without any coercion. However, the Secretariat said it considered "many contingencies" for non-compliance. Ensuring compliance rests partly on the state secretary general, and partly on the county clerk, he said.
Nearly every other Nevada state. counties will continue to count by machine.
Carson City Clerk Aubrey Rowlatt said it was "extremely difficult to accurately complete and certify" a hand count vote within the current certification timeline. He said the proposed rule would help maintain consistency.
Humboldt County Clerk Tami Ray Spero read the hand count rules and wondered what resources a rural county of about 17,000 people would need.
The four-person team and table spacing requirements help keep the handcount running smoothly, but I wondered where I could find the space and bipartisan personnel I needed. rice field.
"Let's hope we never really have to," she said.
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Stern is a member of her Associated Press/Reports for America State House News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover hidden issues. Follow Stern on Twitter @gabestern326.