An automatic vote recount law could have saved former Reno City Council candidate Lily Baran a lot of confusion and headache this past June when she fell just 15 votes shy of the second-place finisher in her Ward 1 race. Instead, she was given just days to come up with $50,000 and wade through what she said was uncertainty and misdirection from local officials. She said she also had to parse the validity of threats that she’d committed a felony by violating campaign finance laws.
Washoe County Commissioner Mike Clark last week suggested the county take up the issue, potentially running a bill during the 2025 legislative session that would create an automatic recount law in Nevada.
Clark said an automatic recount would ensure “we don’t have questions about tight races and we don’t force people to spend $50,000 to cure 15 ballots.”
Twenty-seven states already have automatic recount laws, although the provisions for each state vary. Many states require an automatic recount if a candidate is defeated by only a small number or percentage of the total vote. Often, the threshold is set at 1,000 votes or .5% of the total votes, whichever is less.
The Board of County Commissioners unanimously supported Clark’s suggestion. On Tuesday they approved a recommendation for Cadence Matijevich, the county’s government affairs liaison, to research automatic recount laws in other jurisdictions and bring forward a proposal for a bill draft request that could go to the Nevada Legislature for consideration.
Her recommendation will be presented sometime in August. The deadline for the county to submit bill requests for the 2025 legislative session is Sept. 1.
Commissioners will also learn during an August meeting if the Nevada Association of Counties will carry two bills the county referred to the organization earlier this year. The bills both address public records and although initially discussed by county officials were determined to be impactful for all of Nevada’s counties.
The first bill would clarify that voter signatures held by election officials and used to verify voter registration are not public records. Commissioners confirmed on Tuesday that the signatures would still be made available for inspection at the election office, just not provided in bulk via public records request. The second bill would change public records laws for autopsy reports and records. Matijevich did not provide details about what the bills will change.
The NACO board meets July 26 and may vote on whether to proceed in submitting the two BDRs.
Commissioners also recommended the county pursue an alternate method for the creation of a specialty license plate to generate funds for Truckee River preservation. The plates were previously suggested as a legislative initiative. Matijevich, however, said submitting an application for the plate through the Department of Motor Vehicles would be faster and use less staff time.
