New election official's first months turn into unexpected challenge in Nevada
A new-hire at Nevadaʼs election office got more than he expected in his first months. Series of unusual events pushed him into temporary leadership role just before November vote
Andrew McDonald started his job at Nevadaʼs Washoe County voting office this summer‚ but his first months turned into an unexpected test-run. The new-hire found himself dealing with a string of non-standard situations that no-one couldve predicted
The countyʼs election system faced several road-blocks: board members refused to sign-off on primary results‚ and one member even had to deal with a citizens attempt at arrest (which was completely out-of-line). Things got more complex when about twenty-thousand mail-in ballots were mis-sent to non-active voters — a major mix-up that needed quick fixing
The biggest shake-up came when McDonalds supervisor announced an un-planned leave just before Nov election: leaving him to step-up as temporary head of operations. This created a unique situation where a five-month employee had to take charge of the whole voting process
