The Nevada secretary of state has declared that complaints made by Nevada Republicans alleging voter fraud are without merit.
Last Friday, Secretary of State Ross Miller, a Democrat, released a 20-page report responding to several complaints filed by a lawyer for the Nevada GOP Victory Committee. The complaints alleged that one- or two-ballot discrepancies in the number of early voters recorded and the number of ballots cast should be investigated for signs of voter fraud.
Miller checked out several of the complaints and ruled that they were simple clerical errors.
“My investigation reveals no evidence of voting machine tampering or voter fraud. It does reveal the presence of occasional human error int he election process, which cannot be avoided as long as humans are a part of the process,” he said. “No amount of procedures can prevent error if the procedures are not followed.”
“It is my opinion,” Miller wrote, “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.”
The lawyer who filed the complaint, David O’Mara, filed it on behalf of the Nevada Republican Party. But O’Mara later admitted that he does not work for the NRP — instead, he works for an affiliate, the Nevada GOP Victory Committee. The NRP chairman told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he’s “aware” of O’Mara but does not work directly with him.
O’Mara has also filed a complaint claiming that unions intimidated members into voting for Democratic candidates, a charge the unions deny. Miller has not issued a response to that complaint.
Allegations of voter fraud have been flying from both sides in the too-close-to-call Nevada Senate race between Sen. Harry Reid and Sharron Angle. Angle’s campaign has accused Reid and unions of bribing voters; Reid’s has accused Angle of using “goons” to intimidate voters. (There’s been no evidence of either.)
Reid has also accused Angle’s campaign of trying to intimidate Latino voters after an ad from a GOP-linked PAC urged Latinos not to vote.
