Caucus-goers line up at the Coronado High School GOP caucus site Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016.
Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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As it turns out, the Republican Party was correct about a massive threat to election integrity in Nevada. The only problem, the state GOP is the source of the threat.
Leaders of the Nevada Republican Party not only insist on hosting private nominating parties that are gift-wrapped for disgraced former President Donald Trump, but they are also so incompetent and disorganized that they are failing to provide for even the most basic security of the electoral process.
As the Sun’s Ray Brewer and Hillary Davis reported, the GOP is desperately seeking volunteers to staff its private nominating parties, also known as the Republican presidential preference caucuses.
Jesse Law, chairman of the Clark County GOP, sent an email this week with the subject line, “Need Volunteers for the Caucus!” The note detailed needing volunteers for the check-in table, help desk and as ushers.
With just two weeks remaining before the caucuses, it’s hard to imagine that the volunteers running the caucuses, staffing the check-in tables or providing assistance at help desks will have adequate training to understand the basic processes, procedures and rules that govern the caucus, let alone the ability to spot a fake ID or deescalate angry or aggressive behavior.
Given the confusion surrounding the competing state-run primary and party-run caucuses, along with the fact that caucus sites have yet to be finalized and keep changing without warning, caucus volunteers should probably expect frustrated, angry and aggressive behavior to be more common than in years past. The conduct of caucus participants is especially of concern because, by hosting a private nominating event, the GOP is inviting behavior that wouldn’t normally be allowed in an election setting.
Numerous statutes govern state-administered elections such as the Nevada Presidential Preference Primary on Feb. 6. Election-specific laws prohibit the use of intimidation, coercion, undue influence, threats to expose or publish confidential personal information, misrepresentation, electioneering, and numerous other activities that are immoral but not illegal in private organizations or among personal relations.
Unfortunately for the GOP volunteers, it’s unclear whether any of those laws apply to the private caucuses. In essence, the caucuses are the legal equivalent of athletes selecting a team captain or a book club selecting what book to read next. Apart from actions that clearly violate general criminal laws (violence, threats of violence, etc.), it seems that anything goes.
It is not unfair to say that the 2024 Nevada Republican presidential caucuses are the least secure electoral events in modern history.
After spending decades trying to convince the public of the existence of mass voter fraud and voter manipulation, the GOP is now creating the perfect circumstances for fraud and manipulation to occur.
We wish we could say we were surprised but given that the chair of the Nevada Republican Party is already under indictment for his role in orchestrating Trump’s 2020 fake elector scandal, no one should be shocked that the state GOP is sowing the seeds of chaos in its elections.
State lawmakers attempted to address some of the electoral chaos in the past two legislative sessions. Their efforts included mandating a state-administered presidential preference primary and passing laws to criminalize efforts to manipulate the outcome of elections via fraud or misrepresentation. However, always the Trump lapdog, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed the latter proposal, saying the bill “provides disproportionately harsh penalties.”
Apparently, thwarting the will of Nevada voters and destroying the integrity of the state’s electoral systems aren’t sufficiently serious crimes in Lombardo’s eyes to justify “harsh penalties.”
By hosting private presidential caucuses that are separate and distinct from the legally mandated presidential primaries, Nevada Republicans were already the poster children for how to blatantly manipulate elections. Now, by demonstrating their incompetence, they have also made us the laughingstock of the nation.
GOP leaders have had multiple opportunities to show that they are committed to free and fair elections that are not rigged in Trump’s favor. Just this week, when they removed the names of candidates who have dropped out of the caucus ballot, they could have added Nikki Haley’s name and created a competitive caucus in which voters had a meaningful choice. Instead, they continued to throw wrenches into the gears of democracy.
None of this chaos was imposed upon the Nevada Republican Party. Its leaders knowingly fought to host a private party-run nominating event that is rife with opportunities for manipulation. And their sloppiness is so sweeping that everything from the locations of the caucuses to the people who are supposed to be running the caucuses to the rules governing them and the training they’ll receive is completely unknown.
No one should take Nevada Republicans’ claims about election integrity or security seriously ever again.
The party’s leaders have shown repeatedly that the only fraud or manipulation of the electoral process is the manipulation they are perpetrating. Voters who care about democracy should refuse to participate in the sham caucuses and exercise their right to vote in the state-administered primary instead.
