Nevada leaders put aside partisan politics Tuesday by signing into law a measure that will protect state election workers.
Republican Governor Joe Lombardo joined Democratic Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar in signing Senate Bill 406 - making it a felony to harass or intimidate election workers and poll observers. The Secretary of State signs all bills that the Governor signs into law.
Prior to the law being signed, there were only laws protecting voters. Now it's clear that if anyone is found to have harassed or intimidate election workers, they are going to be held accountable with a class e felony, which is a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 4 years in prison.
The Registrar of Voters for Washoe County says she hopes these new penalties will help disincentive some of the worst types of incidents.
“So, we had an incident during the general election, this last general election, of somebody coming in, being very aggressive towards election workers, making threats against them, telling them they were treasonous,” said Registrar of Voters for Washoe County.
SB406 also makes it a felony to share personal information about election workers and their families, including sharing where they live - known as “doxing.”
“We had people check and actually make sure election workers were leaving the office, and some people had made reports that people had followed them home, so that is definitely a very real concern. During the election we have people following election workers and taking pictures of their license plates,” explained Rodriguez.
For Secretary Aguilar, the passage of SB406 marks the fulfilment one of his main campaign promises He says it will help the state with its election worker vacancy problem.
“Given the vacancy rates, the fact that we have 10 out of 17 new clerks in our counties, we need to ensure that they are going to be protected in the job they have, and we also need to recruit new workers to the sector. And, in order to do that people want to come work in a place that's safe, and they know that somebody has their back,” said (D) Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar.
Secretary Aguilar says the next step is to launch a database to keep track of reported incidents of intimidation.
The bill also prohibits constitutional officers to accept or solicit certain campaign donations during certain election periods.
