Judge temporarily dismisses lawsuit aiming to block election worker protection law

A judge last week temporarily dismissed a lawsuit that tried to block a new law protecting Nevada’s election workers.

Four Nevada residents filed a federal lawsuit in June attempting to block the Election Worker Protection Act, which makes it a felony to threaten and intimidate election workers.

U.S. District Judge Cristina D. Silva dismissed the lawsuit on Oct. 20, finding that the plaintiffs failed to allege a threat of “imminent, credible harm” sufficient to grant standing.

Silva allowed for plaintiffs to file an amended complaint. Sigal Chattah, the Nevada Republican Party’s national committeewoman and the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal they would file an amended complaint within 14 days.

In May, Gov. Joe Lombardo signed Senate Bill 406 — spearheaded by Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar — which makes it a crime for any person to threaten, intimidate, coerce or use any act of violence against an election official with the intent to interfere in an election. The crime would be punishable by between one and four years in prison.

The plaintiffs, who say they have worked as poll workers, argued the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution and imposes “impossible” and “unpredictable” burdens on people who come into contact with election officials during elections.

They contended the new law was overbroad and vague and criminalizes speech that an election worker could misinterpret as harassment or intimidation. They also argued that the fear of prosecution will dissuade people from participating as election officials and observers in the future.

Silva said the hypothetical injuries listed in the lawsuit are not sufficiently concrete or imminent to grant the plaintiffs’ standing to bring forward the claims.

She also wrote in her order that none of the plaintiffs allege an intent or plan to engage in behavior for the purpose of intimidating or coercing poll workers and that they fail to demonstrate the existence of a credible threat of prosecution.

“A plaintiff’s subjective and irrational fear of prosecution is not enough to confer standing,” Silva wrote.

Election Worker Lawsuit Dismissal by Jessica Hill on Scribd

Silva said the plaintiffs do not concretely allege they will not return to the polls in future elections, therefore failing to allege an actionable concrete injury.

“In short, plaintiffs fail to give assurance that the conduct in question—the mistaken intimidation of poll workers—has a history in enforcement or is otherwise ‘reasonably founded in fact,’” Silva wrote.

In an email Wednesday, the secretary of state’s office said that elections “don’t work without people.”

“Secretary Aguilar is proud of his work to introduce and pass SB406, and remains focused on protecting Nevada’s election workers moving forward,” they wrote.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.