Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria answers a question during a press briefing at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020.
Friday, Nov. 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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With the nation’s eyes on the vote count in Nevada, we thought America might like to meet the man who’s at the center of the issue in Las Vegas.
He’s Joe Gloria, the Clark County registrar of voters, and we consider him one of the treasures of our community and our state.
Gloria has been our registrar for seven years, during which time he’s revolutionized our voting access.
Under Gloria, the county switched in 2018 from a precinct voting system to valleywide voting centers that allowed residents to cast their ballots wherever they wanted, not just at their neighborhood polling place. He and his team also expanded early voting and embraced mail-in balloting, making it easier than ever for Southern Nevadans to make their voices heard at the polls.
When the pandemic hit this year, Gloria responded by doubling down on voter access and safety both in the June primary and general election. In between those votes, Gloria requested and received additional resources from Clark County to process and verify mail ballots, install safety precautions at voting sites and bring in extra personnel for the general election.
Despite legal harassment from Republicans and the Trump campaign in the form of junk lawsuits, Gloria and his team established and operated a system that allowed all Clark County eligible voters to cast their ballots this year.
And now, Gloria is working tirelessly to ensure that every one of those votes is counted. This speaks to his diligence: When he was asked Thursday about a voter complaint that the GOP has cited in its latest groundless lawsuit of voter fraud, Gloria explained that he had dealt with that voter personally during the voting process and had offered her a chance to provide a statement about her issue. Gloria said the voter declined. The Nevada secretary of state’s office was notified, Gloria said, and determined that the county had taken all appropriate steps to deal with the issue.
That’s Gloria, who we endearingly describe as an elections wonk. He cares deeply about Americans’ right to vote, as we at the Sun have learned in dealing with him numerous times on voter guides through the years. Unfailingly, he’s been enthusiastic about helping readers understand how to register, where to vote, etc. That’s important in a community where a lot of people come and go, and therefore aren’t familiar with the local voting system.
Gloria has been serving Clark County voters since 1995 and has seen the election department’s operations at every level. He’s become one of the nation’s best election officials, and he’s put together an extraordinary team around him.
He is a defender of democracy, pure and simple, and he won’t yield an inch in ensuring the count is done correctly.
The pressure is intense — we get it, America, you want us to wrap up the count, and so do we — but we admire Gloria for working painstakingly to ensure a thorough and accurate count.
“Our goal here in Clark County is not to count fast,” he said Thursday. “We want to make sure that we’re being accurate. The results in the state of Nevada are obviously going to be very important to the entire country, so that is our No. 1 goal.”
That’s as it should be. So to our fellow Americans, let us assure you that Gloria is the ideal person to be leading the count, and that he and his team will get it right.
