Nevada ACLU requests probe into alleged partisan hand-count

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada asked the state’s secretary of state Wednesday to investigate what it called a “coordinated partisan election administration effort” during rural Nye County’s hand-count of mail-in ballots that was shut down last week until after polls close.

The ACLU said a hand-count volunteer openly carrying a firearm removed an ACLU observer from a hand-count tally room, which the organization said it recently discovered was Nye County GOP Central Committee Vice Chair Laura Larsen.

The ACLU said the situation “poses questions” surrounding Nye County interim clerk Mark Kampf's delegation of authority to partisan officials to remove observers from hand-count rooms, particularly during a hand-count process that deals with tabulation of ballots.

“A partisan official from the Nye County GOP Central Committee given free range to roam the halls and remove those engaging in observation violates the core principles underlying free and safe elections and makes an even greater mockery of our democracy,” ACLU of Nevada’s executive director Athar Haseebullah said in a statement.

It’s the latest development in a conflict between the rural county’s election administration and the ACLU that has spanned lawsuits, infighting and a Nevada Supreme Court ruling late on Oct. 27 that prompted Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, to shut down the hand-counting until after polls close on Election Day.

Several ACLU members showed up on the first day of hand-counting Wednesday in Pahrump, an hour outside Las Vegas.

Kampf said last week that the ACLU observer at issue was suspected of tallying votes, something that is prohibited when observing the hand-count. Volunteers locked the door to the entry room that led to the...