Nevada orders shutdown of controversial ballot hand count in rural county
Mulvane, NV – In the aftermath of the contentious Nevada presidential election, in which supporters of Republican Donald Trump, who narrowly won the state, had the votes to carry the state, in which Hillary Clinton garnered nearly 3 million votes, the state’s secretary of state ordered a statewide audit of the election results – a move many called an end run around the state’s laws.
Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske made the request shortly after the statewide tally concluded over the weekend. The final results showed Trump with just over 8.2 percent of the vote.
The election board has recommended she close the tabulation of the ballots on Monday after finding the error – a glitch in the statewide system used to count the votes in the contest.
“We have received a complaint from the secretary of state, and we will discuss those in the coming days,” Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said in a statement Monday.
Cegavske’s office announced the decision on Monday afternoon as the board of the state’s elections commission was preparing to vote on the audit in a special meeting.
Under Nevada law, no election official can ask an election’s results be changed. The board’s review of the statewide vote tabulation found a potential problem in the state’s tabulation system that could have resulted in the possibility of thousands of ballots being lost.
As of Sunday night, the tabulation had counted 8,715 votes for Trump and 8,611 for Clinton.
In a follow-up news conference, Cegavske, a Democrat, said the mistake in the statewide count could have been made by a single person or a limited group of employees.
“If it has happened it was made by one person or a limited group of people and not a broader conspiracy,” she said.
The elections commission and Cegavske’s office released a joint statement confirming the tabulation error. The commission would not