State not immune to fraud in election process

Judy Odierna

Friday, Nov. 22, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

From dogs to dead people, to even a few people who never existed in the first place, it seems anyone can register to vote and cast a ballot in Nevada.

Though infrequent, the state has seen its share of voter fraud cases, the latest involving November's race in Assembly District 37. The results from that race were contested Tuesday, following allegations that a North Las Vegas bar owner may have aided or encouraged 160 voters to register under false addresses to cast ballots in the race.

"What has happened with the bar has happened before," said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "Usually it is never uncovered unless someone opens their mouth or an election is really close."

Both seem to be the case in District 37.

Sandra Vitolo, a registered voter in the district, has challenged the outcome of the election in which Democrat Marcus Conklin defeated Republican Francis Allen by 134 votes. Vitolo is questioning the results, on behalf of Allen, and alleging that Gary Horrocks, owner of The Clubhouse Tavern and a candidate in the District 37 Republican primary, bragged about skewing the election results.

Horrocks did not return phone calls.

Conklin says he was never involved in any scheme that may have occurred.

"I'm learning about it like everyone else is through the newspaper," Conklin said. "If there is voter fraud then those who committed it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent."

Allen said she doesn't expect the results to be overturned but she wants the investigation to happen so that the problem won't occur again in the future.

"It's against the law," Allen said. "It takes a voice away from the people."

The election contest will go to the Assembly, which will hear the matter and determine whether Conklin will remain the winner. The Clark County District Attorney's office will investigate the charges of voter fraud.

"It is up to the Assembly of how they want to handle it," said Susan Bilyeu, the Secretary of State official in charge of elections. "If they want to bring those people (on the list in) then they can do it much like a courtroom."

While voter fraud is not uncommon, Herzik says the problem is also not wide spread.

"For the most part elections are pretty clean," he said. "Most of what is labeled voter fraud is unintentional."

In 1995, the election for Assembly District 9 between Kathy Von Tobel and Chris Giunchigliani was contested in a similar fashion by Von Tobel, who lost by 123 votes. Von Tobel said 137 votes were cast by people with bogus addresses, and some were ex-felons. Von Tobel was unable to prove voter fraud in that case.

Larry Lomax, registrar of voters for Clark County since 1998 said the contested race between Allen and Conklin is the first he has seen.

"We always get one or two calls but no one else has made an issue or has even grumbled about the other results," Lomax said.

Currently, all a Nevada resident needs to submit to the election department when registering to vote by mail is the form. A separate mailing address for absentee ballot forms to be sent to is an option, and there is no requirement to list a Social Security number or driver's license number or a picture ID.

"Not only do you not have to show ID when you register but you don't need to show ID when you go to vote," said Lomax. "It's very easy to fill out fraudulent forms because the burden of integrity is on the voters. We don't have the staff to check well over 100,000 addresses. No election department in the country has the staff."

The Help America Vote Act of 2002 signed by President George W. Bush and passed by Congress in October is crafted to curb some of the problems.

Starting Jan. 1, new voters will have to submit identification when registering to vote in person and by mail. The first time the voter who mailed in a form will have to show identification at the polls. The new forms will also require potential voters to submit a driver's license number.

But Lomax said the only problem with the new law is that it only affects new voters.

"It only impacts people who resister to vote after Jan. 1," Lomax said. "It doesn't affect the other 554,000 active registered voters (in Clark County) and 150,000 in active voters."

To keep track of voters, the county election department sends out postcards to those that have registered. If the postcard comes back, the person who did not receive it falls onto the inactive voter list. If that person shows up on Election Day, they are required to fill out a change of address form and according to state law, are allowed to vote in their old district for that election.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who initially looked into the voter fraud allegations in District 37, says limiting who can vote on an absentee ballot may be another possibility to curb fraudulent votes.

"We could restrict the use of absentee ballots to people who truly can't get out," Beers said. "With the existence of early voting people can't make the case to vote absentee for convenience."

But making it harder to vote or to register to vote could disenfranchise voters, said Herzik.

"It's never going to be totally fixed short of making voter registration so hard," he said.