Congratulations to Washoe County for making national headlines again this year for yet another dose of political fuckery with near-instantaneous, utterly predictable fallout.
This time, Washoe County Commissioner Clara Andriola’s dopey flip-flop on whether to accept vote counts by the registrar’s office has now entered the Nevada Supreme Court’s chambers for, literally, a next-level decision.
Her posturing — along with the predictable no votes by Commissioners Mike Clark and Jeanne Herman — against what she called problems with the Registrar of Voters office and election processes were, on Tuesday, so egregious that she joined the fray in effectively disenfranchising her own voters.
What the trio voted against were recounts that affirmed losses in two races, one of which was Andriola’s own race, in which she prevailed against her challengers. Like Clark, Andriola said there are too many problems that need “time and attention” to rebuild community trust.
What her flippedity-floppiness neglected to consider was whether those problems were severe enough to warrant snubbing her entire voter base. On Tuesday, apparently, it was.
The commission vote against the primary election canvass drew stern condemnation from Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar. Both chastised the three local commissioners for being obstructionists — not just for a county race or two but for “undermining the confidence of voters.”
“When the Board of Commissioners failed to perform its duty to certify the authenticated results of the recount, it failed to meet the expectation of Nevada voters that the election results would reflect the votes of the majority,” Ford said.
Not to flip too hard before a flop, however, Andriola backpedaled after the gravity of her vote — which she’d been forewarned about — sunk in, and she decided to change her mind.
Tuesday’s agenda item, a vote against the results of the recount, which is a legally mandated requirement of the body, prompted a lawsuit by the AG and SOS, who are asking the state’s high court to fix the problem created by the commissioners.
Meantime, Andriola gave herself a chance to reconsider her folly. Tuesday’s agenda item is appearing at next week’s county commission meeting so commissioners can vote on the same item again.
We had high hopes for the Gov. Joe Lombardo appointee, but she lost us after her deafening pearl-clutching when Reno Satanic took advantage of the democracy Andriola wanted, but didn’t appear to quite understand, and gave a juicy little prayer before a commission meeting in January.
She skipped out of the room when the local Satan guy spoke.
The headline-generating invocation was thanks to Andriola, though, who clearly wanted a bit more Christ in county deliberations, but who was informed that, if pre-meeting prayers were to occur, everyone could have the opportunity to espouse religiosity in front of a captive county audience.
Andriola was warned about that too. Nevertheless, she persisted, and she didn’t like the outcome. Perhaps after a couple of headline-generating blunders and, now, a lawsuit in the state’s high court, commission members may take a different approach to deliberations.
We’ll be eagerly watching, waiting and wondering.
– Kristen Hackbarth and Bob Conrad
