Official’s report says no evidence of voter fraud in Clark, Washoe counties

A state investigation into Republican claims of early voting discrepancies in Clark and Washoe counties has found no evidence of fraud.

"My investigation reveals no evidence of voting machine tampering or voter fraud," said Carolyn Ellsworth, the securities administrator for the secretary of state's office, in a written report. "It does reveal the presence of occasional human error in the election process, which cannot be avoided as long as humans are a part of the process."

Secretary of State Ross Miller had asked Ellsworth to investigate the allegations raised earlier in the week by David O'Mara, legal counsel for the Nevada GOP Victory Committee.

O'Mara said daily polling logs kept by election officials in Clark and Washoe counties showed the number of ballots cast was larger than the number of voters who signed the election registers at seven early voting sites, five in Southern Nevada and two in Northern Nevada. The count was off by two ballots at one site, and by one each at six others.

"These troubling discrepancies suggest that these voting machines may have recorded extra votes erroneously, or that people were allowed to cast votes without signing up (thereby potentially allowing them to cast multiple ballots)," O'Mara wrote.

But Ellsworth said in her report, released Friday afternoon, that she interviewed Clark and Washoe election officials and found that proper safeguards were in place to prevent that from happening.

"It is my opinion, after a review of the procedures in place for poll workers, that the procedures attempt to balance the need to prevent voting fraud at the polls with the need to assure that every qualified voter is permitted to vote, and that said balance is achieved in these procedures," Ellsworth wrote.

On Wednesday, Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said that he had "reconciled" the balloting differences here, but he would not explain how he did that.

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