It has been 2.5 months since the Committees to Recall Trustees Matthew Dent and Sara Schmitz filed an appeal with the Nevada Secretary of State Office to investigate the issues found with the signature verification process handled by the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office.
Since the appeal was filed, the Registrar of Voters, Jamie Rodriguez, has resigned, though it is not clear if this was related.
As the Committees wait for a response from the Secretary of State’s Office, they have shared lessons they have learned throughout this process in the hope this educates and informs any future recall efforts in the state (Nevada Recall Statute 306).
Nevada Recall Statute 306.015
A substantial number of signatures collected during the first 45 days of signature gathering for the Recalls were invalidated by Washoe County Registrar as they were submitted after the 45th day deadline.
- There were over a hundred on the Dent Petition and possibly over 200 on the Schmitz Petition invalidated for this reason (exact counts unknown due to miscoding during the Washoe County signature validation process).
- These invalidated signatures are not included in the statistical analysis of the signatures invalidated or not counted for other reasons.
The 2024 Recall guide produced by the Secretary of State states that the signatures collected in the first 45 days must be submitted to the county clerk by the 48th day and that these signatures are made available for public inspection (Section 3(a)).
This recall guide does not state that a delay in submitting these signatures will result in their invalidation. And, at the very least, it should be possible to “Cure” these signatures, or have them counted towards the qualification of the Petitions.
At least one judge in a related Nevada court case (Canyon General Improvement District 2001 Recall) ruled that a similar minor error “was inadvertent and there was no legal harm as a result. I support the citizens for recall and leave the decision to the voters.” By invalidating these signatures, Washoe County would deny signatories to these recall petitions from exercising their right to be heard.
The original group that initiated the Schmitz/Dent recall process, in retrospect, should probably have raised money right at the start of the recall, and hired someone with expertise in the recall process to make sure that the very complicated rules in Nevada for recalls were followed meticulously.
Legislators did not want to make it easy to initiate a recall.
Following the last elections, there was an article pertaining to the election laws in Nevada that highlighted the fact that people who mistakenly forget to date their signature and who are invalidated are allowed to cure their name. With this information, the signatures that fell into this category have been updated in the report below.
PETITION TO RECALL TRUSTEE MATTHEW DENT SUMMARY
- 1801 Signatures needed
- The Recall Committee submitted 2,169 signatures according to the Washoe County records, which is an error (they undercounted).
- Washoe County approved 1,725 leaving a shortfall of 76 signatures.
- 181 signatures found that, pending other issues, many should be valid.
PETITION TO RECALL TRUSTEE SARA SCHMITZ SUMMARY
- 1801 Signatures needed
- The Recall Committee submitted 2,193 signatures according to the Washoe County records, which is an error (they undercounted)
- Washoe County approved 1,687 leaving a shortfall of 114 signatures.
- 191 Signatures found that, pending other issues, many should be valid.
There appears to be enough valid signatures on both petitions to warrant an immediate call for a recall election.
It is important to note that this analysis does not include those people who were invalidated because the petition they signed was mistakenly not submitted in the proper time period (Section 3(a) of the Nevada Recall Statute 306.015). This is a few hundred people combined.
CURING ISSUE
Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office also did not allow an adequate amount of time to try and cure signatures. They took weeks to verify the signatures submitted, and then gave less than one week to cure a small batch of signatures through daily downloads. The County did not reach out to voters, they simply posted to their website and considered this “public notice.”
The Committees did not have email addresses or phone numbers for most of the voters who signed the recall petition(s), so trying to locate voters to help them cure their name in less than a weeks time posed significant challenges.
Below are the dates of the batches posted by the Registrar’s Office and the total signatures for each Trustee that was posted as curable:
- Sept 16th: 4 days to cure 39 signatures for Dent and 36 for Schmitz
- Sept 17th: 3 days to cure 13 signatures for Dent and 0 for Schmitz
- Sept 18th: 2 days to cure 11 signatures for Dent and 0 for Schmitz
- Sept 19th: 1 day to cure 22 signatures for Dent and 38 for Schmitz
The Committees to Recall IVGID Trustees Matthew Dent and Sara Schmitz as well as voters in Incline Village and Crystal Bay deserve an answer from both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office.
If you would like to write your representative, you may do so by reaching out to:
- Cisco Aguilar: NV Secretary of State: sosmail@sos.nv.gov or by phone at 775-684-5708
- Alexis Hill, Washoe County Board Chairman: ahill@washoecounty.gov or by phone at 775-447-3017
- Rich DeLong, State Assemblyman: rich.delong@asm.state.nv.us