Court tables bid to block military vote

CARSON CITY -- A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit from the Republican candidate for secretary of state that charged votes by Nevada service members would not be counted in Tuesday's election.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ruled that the case filed by candidate Rob Lauer was moot because Secretary of State Ross Miller has taken steps to ensure votes from service members serving overseas are counted.

"The case never had any merit," Miller said. "We already has resolved the issue. It was a campaign stunt."

On Oct. 12, Lauer filed a lawsuit charging Miller with violating a federal law requiring election ballots to be sent to service members by Sept. 18, or at least 45 days before the election. He said 51 absentee ballots requested by residents of Elko County who are in the military overseas were sent out as many as 15 days late.

But Miller and his staff argued that even before the lawsuit was filed they had issued an emergency regulation to require Elko County to wait four days past the Nov. 2 election before finalizing the count on ballots from Nevadans in the military.

They said the company that printed ballots in Elko County made errors in the original printing of absentee ballots. Ballots were reprinted and 34 ballots, not the 51 alleged by Lauer, were sent out to service members four days past the Sept. 18 deadline.

Lauer charged that some ballots went out to the military as late as Oct. 1. But the secretary of state's office contended these were ballots requested by service members after Sept. 18 and they were sent out as soon as Elko County received the requests.

Pam Dupre, a spokeswoman for Miller, said the law requires ballots to be sent to service members at least 45 days before the election only if they are requested at least 45 days before the election. Otherwise, clerks send out ballots as soon as they receive the requests, she said.

But Lauer continued to maintain Thursday that service members are not able to vote and the Legislature next year needs to take steps to request ballot requests to be sent to them, regardless of whether they request them.

Lauer released an e-mail message, which he said was from an Air Force major serving in Afghanistan, who claimed he does not have access to computers or printers and doesn't even have free time to vote.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.