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Election lawsuit claims Washoe County voter rolls filled with improper business addresses

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A conservative legal group claims Washoe County voter rolls are rife with registrations at business addresses where people do not live.

The Virginia-based Public Interest Legal Foundation wants them purged from the county’s voter registration list.

Its lawsuit naming Washoe County’s interim registrar of voters Cari-Ann Burgess follows on the heels of a March lawsuit by the Republican National Committee against the Nevada Secretary of State over allegations of too many people being registered to vote. That case is still making its way through the federal court system.

The district attorney’s office was served legal documents Thursday. It generally has 30 to 45 days to respond.

A similar lawsuit by the legal foundation claiming Michigan wasn’t doing enough to remove dead voters from its rolls was tossed out by a judge in March. This week, it appealed that decision.

The new lawsuit asks the court “to compel the Washoe County Registrar to perform her duties as required by (state law) to determine whether commercial addresses on the voter roll are accurate and, if not, make corrections.”

State law allows people to use a business address for voter registration only if the person actually lives at the location. The legal foundation submitted four dozen photos where it says its research turned up no one living at those addresses.

The addresses include Café Capello, a downtown Reno coffee shop; a tattoo studio on Wells Avenue; a liquor and convenience store on Second Street; and an office building containing, among other occupants, the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The legal foundation said it gave this information to Burgess and that she didn’t act, causing it harm.

“The Foundation has been required to divert resources to Nevada to investigate erroneous addresses on the voter roll,” its court filing states.

Washoe County’s response

Washoe County said it couldn’t comment on pending litigation and referred the Reno Gazette Journal to an April 26 memo from the Nevada Secretary of State’s office – which oversees elections – to clerks and registrars who administer elections at the county level.

It offers guidance on how to handle information provided by “external parties” about voter registration lists, such as what PILF did.

In short, it says that Nevada law prohibits county election officials from acting on non-governmental sources of information without investigating whether that information is “reasonable and reliable,” whether it isn’t biased by seeking to remove only certain types of voters, and that it’s in compliance with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Even then, “such further investigation must be approved by their respective board of commissioners,” the memo says.

In other words, Burgess can’t take the word of PILF or others who would ask her to remove people from the voter rolls.

If she thinks there’s merit in a third-party report of incorrect information in the county’s voter registration records, she must get permission from the Washoe County Commission before launching her own investigation.

George Guthrie, Washoe County elections spokesperson, added another challenge to the legal foundation’s request.

In an email to PILF included in its court filing, he notes that PILF’s request is within the 90-day voter list maintenance window, which started in March ahead of the June primary, when federal law prohibits removal of voters from registration lists.

“Therefore any action would have to be taken after the June Primary,” Guthrie told PILF. “In the meantime, you may wish to pursue other options laid out in (state law).”

When asked about this, PILF responded that it is merely asking the county to investigation what appear to be improper registrations, not remove anyone.

“Additionally, the 90-day freeze will be ending soon,” said Lauren Bowman Bis, PILF director of communication. “They have given us no indication that they plan to investigate and fix any improper addresses on the voter roll when the freeze is over.”

‘Storm of baseless efforts’

Three Nevada voting-advocacy groups asked the court this week if it could join the lawsuit because they would be affected by its outcome: Rise Action Fund, Institute for a Progressive Nevada, and Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans.

They say that if PILF is successful, it would create a mess.

They are represented by the Las Vegas law firm of Bravo Schrager and the Washington, DC-based Elias Law Group, which describes itself as “a mission-driven firm committed to helping Democrats win, citizens vote, and progressives make change.”

“If the Court grants such relief,” their filing says, “Respondent Burgess – and other clerks and registrars across the state – will be flooded with third-party demands to investigate all manner of alleged peculiarities in the voter rolls, based on unsourced, unverified, and unsworn information.

“Petitioners are not the only ones making such demands. Nevada is in the midst of a storm of baseless efforts by third parties to force election officials to undertake a rushed purge of registered voters before the November election.”

The advocacy groups say that instead of working to help Nevadans vote, they will have “to expend substantial resources to educate voters and protect them from baseless attacks on their eligibility.”

Their court filing notes that state law says county election officials “may” look into outside claims of voter roll concerns – with permission from their boards of commissioners – but they aren’t required to do anything with such information.

It then gives the process in state law that county election officials “must” follow before canceling someone’s registration: The clerk mails written notice to the voter along with a return postcard to write in a new address, and if the voter doesn’t respond and they don’t vote in two successive general elections, then they can be removed.

Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.

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