Marsy Kupfersmith, a longtime advocate for area seniors, said it’s been more than three weeks since she appealed the Washoe County Registrar of Voters’ decision to prevent her from appearing on November’s ballot. She gathered the required signatures to run as a nonpartisan against incumbent and appointed Commissioner Clara Andriola.
But Registrar Cari-Ann Burgess denied her candidacy with no explanation other than saying Kupfersmith’s signatures were deficient. Burgess would not tell Kupersmith why or what was wrong with them.
Kupfersmith then sued, and only through suing did she find out some of the signatures gathered were deemed insufficient.
One of those signatures was of former Sparks Mayor Gino Martini’s wife, Ruth, a registered voter.
Kupfersmith’s lawsuit was dismissed by Second Judicial District Court Judge Kathleen Drakulich after a hearing on July 3. At that hearing, three attorneys – two from the county and one from the Nevada Attorney General’s Office – said Kupfersmith had to take up the matter with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.
Kupfersmith had already done so, and at the court hearing Assistant Attorney General George Ott assured Drakulich the review of Kupfersmith’s signatures was underway.
But after more than three weeks, Kupfersmith told This Is Reno she had not received any correspondence from the secretary’s office despite her attorney’s attempts to get answers. The Secretary of State’s office also did not return an inquiry from This Is Reno about the case.
Kupfersmith told This Is Reno she is “confused and bewildered” by the process.
“I’ve been nothing more than a senior volunteer, a senior advocate, just trying to do some good,” she said early this month. “And I decided that as an advocate, I needed to maybe take that next step … to run for office, because you don’t get invited to those next level meetings just as an advocate, and I’ve been really fighting for affordable senior housing.”
