- Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar is trying to address the shortage of poll workers by offering continuing education credits to attorneys who volunteer to fill the gap.
- Several states have adopted policies that allow poll duties to count towards maintaining a lawyer’s license, and further expansion is expected.
- Aguilar said he wants to strengthen the pipeline of election workers with legal expertise.
As Nevada counties struggle to find poll workers in a critical election year, top election officials in the western battleground state are listening to election officials elsewhere and asking the legal community to help fill the gap. ing.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar wants to make it possible for lawyers who volunteer to vote to earn continuing education credits to meet annual requirements set by the Nevada Bar.
This is because it has become increasingly difficult for lawyers to fill poll worker positions as once-obscure county election departments have come into the spotlight, making lawyers ideal candidates for poll worker positions. It shows that it is being recognized.
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Aguilar likens this to how doctors and nurses stepped up during the pandemic.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar speaks at the Old Capitol Building in Carson City, Nevada, on May 30, 2023. As Nevada counties struggle to find poll workers in a critical election year, Aguilar is echoing the views of his colleagues elsewhere, asking: The legal community can help fill the gap. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes, File)
“Everyone needed medical care during the coronavirus outbreak. … And now is the time we need poll workers,” Aguilar told The Associated Press. “The legal community can stand up and protect the Constitution.”
From battleground states like Michigan to conservative strongholds like Tennessee and Iowa, election officials are hiring struggling lawyers and law students to fill poll worker positions. , a challenge made even more difficult amid procedural changes and hostility stemming from former President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 stolen election.
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Other recruitment campaigns have focused on military veterans and librarians. In 2020, LeBron James helped spearhead efforts to increase voter turnout in key battleground states and combat black voter suppression by hiring poll workers.
Pollsters are on the front lines of an increasingly contentious environment. They guide people, answer specialized questions, spend hours of training, and essentially act as guides through processes where disagreements and misinformation can cause strong emotions.
Since 2020, eight states have adopted policies that recognize polling work as a required credit for maintaining the bar, and advocates across the country hope to see more.
After proposing the idea at a meeting earlier this month, a group of bar presidents is now coordinating the effort with individual county election offices rather than blanket approval from the statewide bar association.
“Lawyers are cautious and I respect that, and I’m one of them, but the process takes time,” said Jason Kaune, chairman of the American Bar Association’s standing committee on election law. He spoke about his attorney’s approval of the initiative. Association. “This is just a faster way to get real results in the field.”
For Aguilar, the Nevada proposal is part of a broader plan to protect election workers, whom he calls “heroes of democracy,” even though turnover has devastated local election offices since 2020. be.
Since defeating Republican election deniers in the 2022 midterm elections, Aguilar has worked to create a better environment for election workers. Last year, he pushed for a bill signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo that would make it a felony to harass, intimidate or use force against election workers doing their jobs in Nevada.
Aguilar also hopes this latest effort will strengthen the pipeline of full-time election workers who are already well-versed in the law.
Aguilar had hoped the Nevada Bar would implement his proposal before the Feb. 6 Nevada presidential primary, but the Secretary of State’s Office has not yet asked the association to consider it, according to the state bar. No formal request was made.
During Nevada’s first presidential primary in the West, many election departments scrambled to hire poll workers at the last minute, especially in rural areas.
All poll worker slots in the state’s two most populous counties (Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and Washoe County, which includes Reno) are filled by the start of early voting, according to county and state election offices. It became. But more money will be needed before the June primary and November general election.
In rural Douglas County, officials have hired 46 poll workers, far short of the 120 needed, said Clerk-Treasurer Amy Bergans. Lyon County also was short 32 of the 45 poll workers needed, Clerk-Treasurer Stacey Lindberg said.
Nevada’s highly concentrated educational environment can make it difficult for lawyers and law students to spread out across many of the far-flung counties of the nation’s largest and least populous state. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is home to the only law school in the state.
Also, according to data from the Nevada State Bar, of the 12,000 licensed attorneys in Nevada, half are in Clark County, about 14% are in Washoe County, and just under 3% are in rural areas outside the state capital. He said he lives in the county. Nevada.
Bergans said he doesn’t know if the attorney for Douglas County, which borders much of Lake Tahoe, will take up the offer to work at polling places and earn credit. “But I want to say that anything Secretary Aguilar can do to help us is appreciated by me and the clerks across the state,” she said.
Poll workers are especially difficult to find in Douglas County, where many part-time residents and recent confusion over a state-sponsored primary election held two days before the Nevada Republican Party’s caucuses. was.
Burgans also noted that there are concerns about becoming an election worker.
She had to begin training for the first time after letters containing fentanyl were mailed to election officials in several states, including Nevada. Bergans, who has a background in law enforcement, also launched active shooter training. She, like the state’s election officials, received emails and phone calls earlier this month from voters dissatisfied with the fight in the Republican nominating process, but she said she received no direct threats. Stated.
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Humboldt County Clerk Tami Ray Spero said the law education unit’s impact on polling operations could be “minimal.” Still, she praised the effort, which she said could be a stepping stone to more effectively bring similar programs to the county, which has a population of just over 17,000 people. One option could be to offer community college or high school credits, she says.
Aguilar is optimistic that the program has the potential to reach every corner of the state.
“I think there are some people who are pretty mission-driven and understand the importance of poll workers and understand the democratic process,” he says. “So they’re going to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure that happens.”
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