What happens if local officials won’t certify elections? A Nevada case may be a model

For more 2024 election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.

RENO, Nev. — More than two dozen local officials around the nation have refused to certify federal elections in recent years and most remain in office, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. This has raised concerns that some of them might do it again, sowing doubt about the results of the 2024 election and — potentially — chaos.

But many election experts say officials in swing states are ready to shut down attempts to deny certification. They cite a recent example in northern Nevada as illustrative.

Washoe County is home to about half a million people and abuts Lake Tahoe. The county seat, Reno, calls itself “The Biggest Little City in the World,” and is ringed by snow-capped mountains this time of year. Back in July, the Washoe County commissioners voted 3-2 against certifying the recounts of two primary election results.

No one here could recall local officials denying certification in Nevada before. Certifying elections is simply a clerical duty with no discretion about how to vote, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s office. Any concerns about election results can be taken to court.

But several of the Washoe Commissioners said they were concerned about the way the election had been handled.

“I’m not going to co-sign for this,” Commissioner Mike Clark, a Republican, said at the time during a public meeting. “I’m not going to say how great it was because I don’t believe it.”

Members of the public, many of them election deniers, also attended the meeting and claimed there was a conspiracy.

“Our elections have been hijacked by someone or something,” said Robert Beadles, an election denier who has given more than $800,000 to GOP candidates over the past two years. “You can’t certify this recount.”

In fact, for all the concerns about the primary election’s accuracy in Washoe, the recount found a difference of just two votes in the two races.

Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said he was shocked the commissioners refused to certify but was prepared. He told NPR he had prefiled legal documents and then just filled in the specifics of the case.“I call it our ‘Mad Libs,’ ” Aguilar said.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford filed suit against the three commissioners who voted against certification. A week later, at a commissioners meeting, Clark and fellow Commissioner Clara Andriola changed their votes to certify.“I have been told that a failure to vote to certify this election can subject me to criminal prosecution and forfeiture of office,” Clark said during the meeting. “As such, my vote today is being made under extreme duress.”

During a recent interview at the Reno Elks Lodge, Clark told NPR he is no election denier but does have genuine concerns about the way elections are managed in the county and heavy turnover at the registrar of voters’ office, including the recent ouster of the woman who ran it.

A new centralized voter registration system in Nevada faces its first real test this election, and state officials have acknowledged past problems, such as assigning some voters to the wrong precincts and mislabeling others as inactive.

Clark might have chafed at the state attorney general’s lawsuit, but Alexis Hill, the chair of Washoe County’s Board of Commissioners, welcomed it. Hill is a democrat who voted for certification.

“This is probably the only time I’ll be excited that the county commission was sued by the AG’s office,” Hill said. “It was embarrassing, but it was good. It needed to happen, because we need to follow the rule of law and I feel like that is sometimes slipping.”

Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, sees the Washoe case as an encouraging sign for the nation as voting in the 2024 election ends today. He said it shows that attorneys general have the will and tools to ensure certification.

“It is something that should be highlighted to voters because voters’ confidence should not be diminished,” Sus said. “These efforts [to not certify] are not going to work. They have not worked historically, and they aren’t going to work this time.”

Clark and Andriola have both said they will vote to certify this election in Washoe, meaning it should easily pass the commission. But that doesn’t mean all is expected to go smoothly here.

State Sen. Skip Daly, a Democrat who represents a part of Washoe County, said he is certain people will challenge the results in court.

“Will it result in some lawsuits that I believe will ultimately be dismissed?” Daly said. “Absolutely!”

Hill, the Washoe County board chair, is also concerned there could be political violence on Election Day.

“The governor has put the National Guard on standby to help with the local sheriff’s office,” she said.

And then there’s the meeting to vote on certification, Hill said. Given past public anger — and depending on who wins — things could get ugly.