DA looking into possible vote fraud

Kim Smith and Judy Odierna

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

Investigators in the Clark County district attorney's office are looking into allegations of possible voter fraud in Assembly District 37 after Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, gave the office 21 names he believes may have registered to vote under false addresses.

Democrat Marcus Conklin narrowly defeated Republican Francis Allen for the District 37 seat by 134 votes in the general election last week.

"A political activist was going through the voter database and he and another cohort brought to me what they thought was suspicious stuff," said Beers, who represents the neighboring District 4. "So we started looking into the locations listed as residences and found some that were vacant homes and others with occupants who said they had moved there recently."

Beers then turned in that information to District Attorney Stewart Bell on Wednesday. Bell said investigators will be going to the locations to check into the allegations.

"We don't know much of what we're dealing with yet, but whenever something is brought to our attention we're going to look into it," Bell said. "We get this almost every election where there are concerns with the legitimacy of the votes."

Bell said the voters may have just changed residences within the district between the time they registered to vote and Election Day. If someone intentionally voted outside the district in which they live or if they used someone else's mail-in ballot to cast their vote, Bell said they could be charged with a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor.

Beers said the matter is part of a larger issue that includes some type of election reform.

"I still can't tell what changes need to be made to stop this from happening again," Beers said.