Election accomplished without major problems

On the heels of Republican complaints about early voting, election officials said Wednesday they saw no serious problems on Election Day.

"I think this was actually the most problem-free election we've had," Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said. "It went real smoothly."

Lomax said he's in the process of canvassing the election, which turned out 63.3 percent of the 736,663 eligible Clark County voters. He formally will ask the County Commission to certify the results Wednesday.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said it was "extremely quiet" at the polls in the rest of the state, as well.

"In other elections, we've usually experienced some difficulties, but in this election we didn't," Miller said "It was particularly surprising given the amount of public anger and participation in the political process."

Republican lawyer David O'Mara, who filed a series of early voting complaints with Miller's office, said he had no issues to raise about the handling of Election Day, but intended to work with election officials to improve transparency in the voting process.

One of O'Mara's complaints was filed on Tuesday, alleging Harrah's Entertainment, with the help of the Culinary Union, "intimidated" and "coerced" its employees into voting early in an effort to get Democratic Sen. Harry Reid re-elected.

Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer for the campaign of Sharron Angle, Reid's Republican challenger, also complained about Harrah's actions in letters to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., and to U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Las Vegas.

Bogden, who has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents in a written statement Monday said, "No voter has complained about any contact referenced in the letter."

But Bogden said his office would review the allegations to determine whether the FBI or Miller's Nevada Election Integrity Task Force should investigate.

The allegations against Harrah's surfaced Tuesday morning in a National Review Online article that reported the casino giant had stepped up efforts to get employees to vote early following a plea from an unidentified Reid staffer.

Company e-mails showed that the Reid staffer informed Harrah's that it was lagging behind the get-out-the-vote campaign of MGM Resorts International. It was suggested that Harrah's supervisors pick up the slack and steer employees to early voting sites. High turnouts generally benefit Democrats.

The National Review reported that a top Harrah's executive sent out an e-mail late last week showing the percentages of employees at Harrah's properties who had voted.

Attached was a spreadsheet with the employees' names and where they worked.

Supervisors at the properties were asked to fill in codes explaining why their employees had not yet voted.

Harrah's spokesman Gary Thompson declined to comment Wednesday on the allegations, but Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor earlier defended the effort, saying it was nonpartisan and no pressure was put on the workers.

Taylor accused the Republicans of raising the allegations without proof that laws were violated.

O'Mara said he hoped the secretary of state's office would be able to determine whether Harrah's "crossed the line" in the get-out-the-vote effort.

He said it was difficult to get Harrah's employees to step forward because most casino workers are just trying to hold onto their jobs in today's high unemployment climate.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@review journal.com or 702-380-8135 or read more courts coverage at lvlegalnews.com.