Election chief: Training key amid turnover

Amid widespread turnover among county election officials in Nevada as the 2022 midterms approached, the clerks and registrars thrust into new roles often had a dual approach: running elections while learning how they operate.

Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar vowed to address the loss of institutional election knowledge to a state Senate committee Thursday, perpetrated in part by election denialism and hostility toward election officials, with adapting to changing election laws and other duties that some clerks and clerk-treasurers are tasked with. That includes managing decades of public documents and safeguarding millions in public funds.

The fallout has been stark: 10 of the state’s 17 counties have changed top election officials since 2020. Several left in the months leading up to the 2022 midterms. The departures included large portions of county election staffs and the secretary of state’s elections office, where eight of the department’s 11 positions experienced turnover between the 2020 election and October 2022.

Aguilar, who took office in January, presented a bill that would mandate his office to prepare biennial training courses and an elections procedures manual for county and city clerks, which would be at the ready for sudden departures and new staff heads leading up to the 2024 election and beyond. Several county clerks and voting rights groups testified in support of the bill.

“We have to be ready and prepared to deal with the team changing talent,” Aguilar testified to the Senate’s legislative operations and elections committee. “And given the fact that we are now putting elections at the forefront of a lot of our discussions, we need to make sure that we (have) consistency throughout 17 counties.”

Public comment at times grew contentious.

Opposition came from some with concerns about the manual coming from the state, rather than individual counties.

Some did not trust the validity of the state’s universal mail ballot laws, Dominion Voting Machines or general elections processes. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Nevada or in Dominion Voting Machines despite unfounded allegations in parts of the state, leading to some pushes for hand-counting. It has also led some county election officials to resign after harassment and threats.

Cisco Aguilar