Several new bills passed by the state legislature last year regarding mail-in ballots immediately fostered debate about election integrity. During a visit to the Churchill County Commission meeting last week, Mark Wlaschin, Deputy Secretary for Elections in the Nevada Secretary of State’s office told Commissioners about the new Voter Outreach program being implemented by the SOS office.
Wlaschin said there were several election-related bills passed during the last legislative session, AB 321, 121, 432, and 422, specifically, that change the voter and election processes regarding several issues around mail-in ballots. Because of the potential impacts of these legislative changes, the SOS office is making the rounds to Nevada communities discussing plans for a formal voter outreach campaign.
“Legislative changes have complicated voter understanding,” said Wlaschin. He said the purpose of the outreach campaign is to provide clear, factual, and non-partisan information about the impacts of the legislation, improvements to voter and election integrity, and give citizens the opportunities for involvement leading up to and during the 2022 election cycle.
Olsen said that having read through the legislation, he is concerned about the mail-in ballots. “With all these mail ballots floating around, is there anything else out there where we can be certain?” He said he received the ballot at his house for one son who no longer lives at home, and another son received four ballots at his house. “The potential is there for people to vote these ballots, and that dilutes my ballot. I’m going to the trouble to go to the polls, and if any of those get through it dilutes my ballot.”
According to Wlaschin, the annual County Clerks meeting was held last week and much of the discussion was around these legislative changes and how to make sure the elections are secure. “We want to make sure the concerns from last year are addressed before next year,” he said.
He told Olsen that the county clerks have the ability to allow voters to opt-out of mail-in balloting and reduce the overall number of ballots that go through the mail.
Additionally, he said there has been “a significant effort to ensure the cleanliness of the statewide voter lists.” Many voters reported during the last election having received ballots for deceased family members. The SOS office has been working with the Department of Vital Statistics, working through 13 years of records to remove deceased people from the state lists and to continue working with that department to obtain their records.
“Many issues were raised during the 2020 elections and we have been directed to look closely at the root causes and identify concerns and formulate a combination of action to notify people and start the process to remove inactive voters from the rolls,” said Wlaschin. There are several steps that must be taken before someone can be removed from the voter rolls, as well as two general elections being held with no action on the part of the voter.
“Making voting convenient has complicated your job,” said Olsen. “I still think this is a bad idea (mail-in voting) and it puts our elections at risk.”
Wlaschin said his office is continuing to work with the county clerks through this “sea-change in elections.” He said there were people during the election who did attempt to vote multiple ballots and there were “very stern conversations with law enforcement officers” over that. “We must have secure elections,” he said.
“I don’t want any of my comments to be considered to cast dispersion on the Secretary of State’s office or our local clerk’s office for whom I have the utmost respect,” said Olsen, “but the sanctity of my vote is more at risk than before this law changed.”
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