Voter confidence in American elections is a national concern. Research indicates that after the 2020 election, 38 percent of polled Americans lacked confidence in the fairness of the presidential election. 

Researchers from a university consortium of Northwestern, Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers surveyed more than 24,000 individuals across the nation between Nov. 3 and 30. The survey found that overall, 38% of Americans lack confidence in the fairness of the 2020 presidential election.

In Nevada, the fact that nearly 40 percent of Americans expressed concerns over if we truly have a representative democracy did not stop the Democrat-controlled literature from changing election law in 2021. While the one-seat-shy from super-majority Dems drowned out the voices of voters, they codified 2020 Special Session legislation, AB 4, which implemented universal mail-in balloting for the first time during the pandemic. 

After the voter sentiments left by the 2020 presidential election, AB 321 was signed into law making the emergency pandemic mail balloting permanent (at the taxpayer’s expense) and changing the once-felony of ballot harvesting into a new frontier of electioneering in the pioneer state.

I opposed this legislation in the public hearing. In doing so, I had to correct the record as a citizen because prior supporting testimony from the ACLU of Nevada seemed to suggest the long primary election lines were caused by not having mail balloting. This went unchallenged by every elected official in attendance and the committee members. 

It felt like there was an effort to conceal the history of our state within the legislature. Who doesn’t correct the record? Either people who do not know what they are talking about or people who do not care if clear facts are factual. As if Nevadans are supposed to agree with versions of events that did not reflect reality. As a private citizen, the gaslighting effects projected me into a bizarre otherworld. I was amid our legislature and also within some constructed alternative reality. And, it was my turn to speak into the void, to a public building where civilians were not permitted to be present, and to a group of partisan representatives offering a smoke-screen of public participation before inevitably casting party-line votes.

So, I said the truth that nobody else was willing to say. The merits of the legislation were promoted citing the long lines of the primary –this is why we “needed” universal mail ballots– even though we had universal mail ballots in the primary. 

What I did not mention — while I felt it to be true — was that when Clark County was initially given one polling station, and eventually three, for the primary election, it was done so to assist incumbents and also punish conservatives who believe in in-person voting on election day. Clark County has two million residents. Three polling stations at rinky-dink community centers for a population of two million can never make sense logistically. 

What I saw was the “voter suppression” the Democrats always talk about everyone but themselves aiming to do.

I spent a full 12 hours on June 9, 2020, assisting voters. What started as pitching a canopy and stumping for a candidate, turned into a humanitarian mission. By the end of the day, I didn’t care who Nevadans were casting their ballots for, as much as I cared about their wellbeing.

My own well-being was deprioritized that day, starting with a phone call to an appointed bureaucrat, Joe Gloria, the Registrar of Voters for Clark County. This call was about the canopy; I had told some county worker that I would need to talk to their boss about the demand for it to be taken down. Soon, they handed me the phone with Gloria on the line and I went into shoulda-been-a-lawyer mode. I demanded Gloria cite the ordinance that says it’s illegal to have a canopy up in the desert. After being forced to admit there isn’t one, I asked, “So, this is a request?” In short, I declined the request. Under no circumstance will I be in the sun for 12 hours without shade while having a fully Irish surname, because county officials would casually prefer that circumstance. 

I kept the canopy up, it was strapped to a trailer because I did agree to take liability for any property damage resulting from gusts of wind. Even with quasi-illegal shade, sunblock and sunglasses I would have to leave the watch party early that evening as my ankles swelled and my vision blurred. This is how I learned that you could sunburn your eyeballs, by partaking in civics designed by people without voters’ interests or physical safety in mind. 

I sprayed sunblock on voters (of all creeds), and I did provide water, Gatorade, and snacks, especially for families with children as they stood in the Las Vegas June sun, roasting for over four hours. An elderly woman who had previously spoken to me with enthusiasm returned to the parking lot hours later looking unwell and demoralized. Her husband was hurrying her home as I hurried to shove some more water bottles in his hands for the journey. Then, I started helping the elderly to the front of the lines for special assistance… I couldn’t just watch this happen to people.

It’s important to note that while a humanitarian crisis emerged in front of my eyes, all of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip sat empty… with their industrial-grade air conditioning and ample space. All of the convention spaces, all of the banquet halls, everything in Las Vegas was sitting empty. There was no mask mandate in place on June 9, 2020, and nobody seemed to care a bit about social distancing. In fact, county volunteers or workers passed around pizza boxes to voters at some point, trying to address the calamity.

After going toe-to-toe directly with the top public official du jour, in an attempt to basically *not die* I sacrificed my personal health to the sun anyway, to provide aid to the elderly, parents with children, and many who responded to my offers of sunblock with relief, admitting that they could feel their skin frying in real-time. One woman said, “Oh, thank God!”, and another had me spray it on her back between her shoulders for her. Many voters dropped out of the line, never casting their ballots, often because they had lost the envelope, or left their mail ballot at home.

While I ran into many candidates, Republicans and judicial hopefuls, often congregating under my canopy for shade; I did not see one incumbent there that day. So, imagine my surprise when I was hoisted into the legislative alternative version of events the following year, which predicated a change of election law as provided by people who were not in attendance and were also the entire cause of the primary crisis. I truly held it together in that testimony; a restraint I hardly ever get credit for.

But, of course, before making the permanent change to election law, they applied this awe-inspiring new system to the general presidential election. Nevada Attorney General Arron Ford (D) would defend doing so in court and win. Ford claimed that the mail program, the one we just tested with horrible outcomes for humans provided a safe and secure opportunity to exercise voting rights. Oh, is that so? 

Ford posted the following on LinkedIn:

My Office has once again defeated a challenge to Nevada’s mail voting program. As the Court observed, Nevada has a valid interest in ensuring that active registered voters have an opportunity to exercise their right to vote in a safe and secure manner during a pandemic.

If you thought my voter disenfranchisement story-time was over, with the catastrophe at the polls, think again. For all of my civic efforts, I was not permitted to vote in that primary election. Hi, it’s me: disenfranchised voter.

I went down to the Election Department where they do same-day voter registration and was turned away. I was told that I could only vote in general, not the primary. I pushed again, saying I was happy to vote on a provisional ballot. They could not give me one.

The issue was that I didn’t have a valid Nevada ID. And, I understand that but the issue was that Governor Sisolak (D) had declared the DMV as “non-essential,” they would be shut down for months. Of course, I screamed into the wind about how this would impact our elections, one because of IDs and two because of motor voter laws. Before closing the DMV, I had an appointment, but I didn’t have all of the documents required for the federal requirements of the newer “Real ID.” As soon as they closed the DMV, I knew I wouldn’t be able to vote, and I was right.

To date, nobody has ever addressed this issue as voter disenfranchisement. But, I know it was. And, I am willing to guess the incumbents knew it was too. If my story seems hard to believe, don’t worry, it’s on video:

If not being able to vote in the election and showing up to help other Nevadans anyway, while incurring injury sounds pretty bad to you, it somehow gets worse. This is also the election cycle where I was “doxxed” by the former Executive Director of the NV Assembly Dems, and Nevada State Director for Pete Buttigieg who posted an address he attributed to me on Twitter. Those tweets are now deleted, but I have provided screenshots of the original, now missing message.

I wrote Selberg describing why this was voter intimidation, which is a felony in Nevada. It discourages both registration and free political speech when well-connected partisans are willing to “doxx” or publish that personal information:

And precisely why this is *voter intimidation*. This discourages voter registration when well-connected Party members use the information to doxx those engaging in free political speech they don’t agree with.

NRS 293.710
(c) Expose or publish or threaten to expose or publish any fact concerning another in order to induce or compel such other to vote or refrain from voting for any candidate or any question;
That’s a Felony @AaronDFordNV
But you represent your party, not the people.

— BrutalBrittany💕 (@BrutalBrittany2) October 27, 2020

What the state law says is basically that you can’t doxx people to intimidate them into voting or to refrain from voting. I made the information available to AG Ford, but I already knew this wasn’t the kind of “exercise of the right to vote in a safe and secure manner” that he concerns himself with. 

Here’s the thing… in 2020, during the presidential debate, President Donald Trump encouraged poll-watching. Trump said,

“I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully because that’s what has to happen. I am urging them to do it,

In response, AG Ford said that Trump supporters intended to illegally intimidate voters and that he would prosecute them. 

Trump also told "his supporters" to "go into the polls and watch very carefully."

But he wasn't talking about poll watching. He was talking about voter intimidation.

FYI — voter intimidation is illegal in Nevada. Believe me when I say it: You do it, and you will be prosecuted.

— Aaron D. Ford (@AaronDFordNV) September 30, 2020

Election-related doxxing is super illegal, but I digress… I did end up being an election observer in the wee hours of November 4, in what I concluded was “non-meaningful observation” at the risk of being targeted for prosecution by the official that I knew wouldn’t prosecute on my behalf, having been targeted by a Democrat figure in the state already.

For Republicans in Nevada, everything is predetermined by the party in power. They pass the election reforms with rhetoric that says Republicans want to suppress and stop people from voting. They don’t listen to the Nevadans that they attempted to doxx, gave sun poisoning and eye injuries, or flat-out prevented from voting by closing the DMVs. They don’t listen. Instead, we find ourselves targeted in the process. Yes, after being refused the right to vote via an executive order loophole, and battling the Registrar over ordinances that did not exist, I was able to be an observer who observed nothing, under threat of prosecution. After all of those experiences, I am subjected to a legislative hearing where the facts are skewed to benefit the Democrats’ reform objectives.

Nevadans like me are exasperated. Not only should they vote in Nevada; they should vote everyone responsible for the years of ineffective governance and chaos right out of office. I’ll be casting my ballot for Sigal Chattah (R) in the Attorney General race to replace Ford, for many reasons. One of the largest is that otherwise, only half of the state gets to have an Attorney General.

Speaking of Ford, Chattah tells RedState:

“He ensures that the shroud of secrecy protects our government and fosters corruption,”

Chattah continues, telling Nevadans why they should vote for her to replace Ford as Attorney General, saying,

“If people want government transparency and an end to public corruption, instead of an Attorney General that has protected it, then I’m the candidate that will ensure transparency, public safety, and an end to public corruption in the state.”

Early voting has started in Nevada and the midterm election will end on November 8.