Contested election takes turn

Willia Chaney was raised in the South and takes voting very seriously.

"My grandfather couldn't vote, and that was one of the things he always wanted to do," she said Wednesday, her eyes growing damp. "People died just so we could register to vote."

That's why Chaney -- Louisiana native, member of the Nevada Department of Education, community activist and longtime North Las Vegas resident -- took it personally a few weeks ago when she received a subpoena to provide testimony in the city's on­going election-turned-court drama because of the large number of voters who share her five-bedroom home.

You remember, that City Council election that was supposed to end after the last vote was tallied on election night more than three months ago.

The election that in­cumbent Councilman Richard Cherchio lost by a single vote, then challenged in court after it was discovered that an official allowed a voter to cast a ballot in the wrong ward.

The election that, because of its razor-thin margin, has attorneys for both candidates scouring voter records for any irregularities they can use in court and shining a spotlight on votes cast by the mayor's son and a union stagehand who admitted he voted in North Las Vegas but doesn't live there.

Yes, that election is still going on -- at least in court.

Now attorneys for dentist Wade Wagner -- who won the election and was sworn into the Ward 4 seat in July despite the legal challenge -- want to talk to Chaney about the seven voters at her home who cast ballots in the contested race. They subpoenaed Chaney late last month.

"It didn't seem likely to us that they were all living at the residence," said Todd Bice, an attorney for Wagner. "We're not saying she did anything wrong. We're just trying to get our arms around who all these people are and do they really live there."

Chaney sees it differently. She looks at the subpoena as a way to target and disenfranchise African-American voters.

"It's just another tactic to dis­enfranchise minority voters," she said. "It always has to be something."

Chaney wouldn't say whether she supported Cherchio, a Democrat, in the election. But she did post a "Cherchio" sign in her front yard. She also served as president of the North Las Vegas Democratic Club and has in the past worked to register new voters.

"I'm just disturbed that they would come to me as an activist and a person who has registered many, many young people to vote," she said. "It's difficult as it is to get young people to vote."

Bice said the issue has been overblown, and the "insinuation that we're harassing these people is nonsense."

There could very well be a logical explanation for the large number of voters in Chaney's home, he said.

"But we need to know what it is."

Chaney filed a request for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit Wagner's attorneys from deposing her. In the affidavit in support of her request, she said that "this is an awful way to run an election, deposing innocent voters."

A District Court judge will consider the matter Monday.

Chaney said the seven voters in question include her, her husband and several of their 14 grandchildren, all of whom voted legally.

Her attorney, Matthew Callister, said the Chaneys are a large, tight-knit family.

"Like many people, she has relatives moving in with her because of hard times," he said. "There are better ways to resolve the election issue than going on endless witch hunts."

Wagner himself faced similar questions in July about 10 adults registered to vote at his five-bedroom North Las Vegas home. He and his wife have eight children.

As with Chaney, no evidence has been presented that anyone voted improperly in the Wagner home.

Attorneys for Cherchio also plan to depose Mayor Shari Buck's son, Jordan, who voted via absentee ballot in the election while registered to vote in both Utah and Nevada.

The younger Buck attends college in Provo but has never voted there. The mayor said her son wasn't aware that he was registered in Provo.

He has since canceled his Utah registration.

The mayor endorsed Wagner in the race.

Cherchio's attorneys already took testimony from Greg Mich'l, a union stagehand who voted in the race but admitted in July he doesn't live in North Las Vegas.

During his Aug. 24 deposition, Mich'l said though he now lives in a home he owns on Villa Pintura Avenue in Las Vegas, at the time he registered to vote in April he was living at his brother's North Las Vegas home, which is near Wagner's.

Mich'l was staying there because he was getting ready to rent out the house on Villa Pintura, he said.

Then he went out of town on tour for work and cast an absentee ballot in the race.

Mich'l also testified it was Wagner himself who registered him to vote.

"I filled it (the voter registration form) out and gave it back to Councilman Wagner," he said.

Mich'l was sure it was Wagner because Wagner has been his dentist "for as long as I can remember."

"And also I went to church with him," Mich'l said.

Mich'l refused to reveal who he voted for in the election during the deposition. And he said he didn't remember telling the Review-Journal in July that he had voted for Wagner.

Cherchio's attorneys have filed a motion with the court to compel Mich'l to reveal for whom he voted. That motion also is scheduled to be considered by a judge on Monday.

Meanwhile, Wagner has since July 18 been performing his role as the cash-strapped city's newest councilman, voting on important matters including budget cuts and concessions agreements with police unions.

It's hard to say how this whole complicated mess will turn out. But one thing's for sure: The strangest election in local memory just keeps going and getting stranger.

Contact reporter Lynnette Curtis at lcurtis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0285.