New complaint alleges misleading tactics in Woodhouse recall

Another complaint alleging misdeeds in the attempt to recall state Sen. Joyce Woodhouse was filed Tuesday with the Nevada secretary of state’s office.

The new complaint comes from the Nevada Alliance of Retired Americans, which claims that its members were targeted by pro-recall canvassers in Senate District 5 because of their age.

In the complaint, NARA claimed that recall canvassers working in the southeast Las Vegas Valley “misrepresented the intent behind the petition or who they were collecting signatures on behalf of.” It also says that some NARA members did not believe they signed the petition despite their names being listed.

“After reaching out to NARA members who had signed the recall petitions in Senate District 5, we quickly realized many of these senior voters were deceived and signed the petition due to false information given by paid canvassers,” NARA President Thomas Bird said in a statement. “As an organization dedicated to advocating for Nevada seniors, we find the predatory behavior and underhanded tactics used by the recall petition signature gatherers alarming. Targeting vulnerable seniors with lies and trying to take advantage of them for political gain is fraudulent and reprehensible.”

The filing represents the latest batch of messy accusations from both sides of the recall effort.

The anti-recall group made similar complaints about canvassers misleading voters in a filing earlier this month in a federal lawsuit that seeks to stop the recall process.

Meanwhile, Stephen Silberkraus, the president of the Woodhouse recall committee, filed two complaints earlier this month. One accused anti-recall canvassers of impersonating state workers and the other said that Clark County Democratic Party Chairwoman Donna West sent out a text to petition signers that incorrectly stated the projected costs of the recalls.

Silberkraus could not be reached for comment.

The Woodhouse recall committee submitted the necessary number of signatures to push the effort into a special election, pending a review of the signatures. But the anti-recall group claims that more than 5,500 of those signatures are invalid, which would leave the recall petition well short of the total needed to force the special election.

Contact Colton Lochehad at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.