Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak during a press conference on Monday, Aug. 3, 2020, in the former Assembly chambers inside the State Capitol in Carson City, Nev.
David Calvert/Nevada Independent via AP
(Michael McGrady) — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, declined a request for ballot harvesting emergency regulations made by Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske.
Cegavske, the only Republican politician in statewide office, sent a letter to Sisolak last week asking for emergency rulemaking that would require a person who returns 10 or more ballots at the direction of other voters — so-called “ballot harvesters” — to register and disclose any political information to the Secretary of State’s elections office.
Cegavske’s letter came in response to Assembly Bill 4, which Sisolak signed into law as an expansive remodel of political contests during an ongoing state of emergency. The law grants that the state’s registered voters receive mail-in ballots for November’s general election and other future statewide elections carried out by election authorities during a state of emergency like Nevada is currently under with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sisolak sent a letter in response to Cegavske’s request, first obtained by the Nevada Independent, denying the Secretary of State’s request, saying “there is no indication that these voter assistance rules have created an emergency or will create an emergency that needs to be addressed through the adoption of an emergency regulation without public feedback.”
Sisolak also took a shot at Cegavske for making the request publicly and for “political reasons.”
“If you were truly interested in identifying and instituting safeguards for Nevada’s voter assistance laws, you could have worked with my administration directly — as we have on other projects since I took office — instead of announcing the request through the media,” Sisolak wrote.
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