Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Countersuit is planned in voter registration complaint

The legal wrangling continues.

Las Vegas lawyer Thomas Kummer is attempting to intervene to stop the courts from allowing Dwight Brandon to vote. Brandon, 44, claimed he registered with a Republican group but the form never made it to the Clark County Elections Department.

Brandon, with help from the voter advocate group Voices for Working Families, filed a lawsuit in District Court Thursday, asking that a judge force the Elections Department to register him.

"My belief is this is filed simply so they can get it into the press," said Kummer, a registered Democrat who Monday morning said he was filing papers seeking to gain "intervener" status for two Nevada voters, Elena Brady and John Hambrick.

A hearing on the request is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday in District Judge Sally Loehrer's courtroom.

Hambrick is a Republican activist who ran for the non-partisan Ward 2 Las Vegas City Council seat in June. However, he said Monday morning he is involved "as a citizen, as an intervener. I just want to make sure the process is kept proper."

The motion to intervene states that allowing people to register beyond the registration deadline would unlawfully dilute the power of Brady and Hambrick's votes.

There is a tight deadline for the issues to be heard, with the election day a week away.

Brandon alleges that he registered with a Republican group at the same time as his parents. But when he checked with the registrar of voters, his parents were on the voter rolls and he was not.

Republicans, in response to Brandon's charges, point to the prominent Democrats -- such as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- on the board of directors of the Voices group, and they point to some inconsistencies in Brandon's public statements.

For example, Brandon initially said his parents registered as Republicans, and he as a Democrat. But his parents, who Republicans admit were registered by GOP field workers, are registered as Democrats.

Brandon said Thursday that the issue is not his parents, it's what happened to his registration.

"My rights were taken away," said Brandon, a caterer who claimed to have voted regularly since becoming eligible.

Republicans have said they consider Brandon's lawsuit, and other allegations about voter suppression in Nevada and elsewhere, as efforts to lay groundwork for Democrats to contest election results.

Brandon's lawsuit was the second seeking judicial relief to force the Elections Department to enroll people who claimed they had registered with a third party that did not give the registration forms to the proper authorities.

The Democratic Party filed a lawsuit Oct. 13 after allegations by a former employee of Voters Outreach of America -- which is funded by the Republican Party -- that he was encouraged to sign up only Republicans, and that he caught a supervisor tearing up Democratic registration forms.

Those allegations are under review by the Nevada secretary of state and the FBI, and are similar to allegations made in Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Judge Valerie Adair, who has been criticized by the Democratic Party for not disclosing her involvement with a Republican women's group, denied the request.

The Democratic Party has not said whether it will appeal.

Kummer was in the audience during that hearing, where the judge said that individuals can sue for the right to vote but that reopening registration could cause more problems than it solved.

Kummer objected to allowing the Democratic Party to file a lawsuit based on an unknown number of people and unnamed plaintiffs, and said that under Nevada law, a named individual could file a lawsuit to be added to the voter rolls.

Brandon's lawsuit states that relief is warranted not only for Brandon but for "all Nevada voters affirming that they were affected by the actions of VOA (Voters Outreach of America)."

Kummer said "if they (Voice for Working Families) were going to do this lawsuit appropriately they'd do it on behalf of Mr. Brandon and Mr. Brandon only or any other named individual."

Nevada Revised Statutes 293.533 states that "any elector may bring and any number of electors may join in an action or proceeding in a district court to compel the county clerk to enter the name of such elector or electors in the registrar of voters' register and the election board register."

Kummer also said he had problems with Brandon's story.

In the affidavit, Brandon states that he registered on or about Aug. 20, and realized he was not on the voter rolls about 10 days to two weeks later.

Registration closed Oct. 2.

"He knew he wasn't registered about a month before the deadline and he didn't go ahead and register," Kummer said. He also pointed out that Brandon doesn't have a receipt to prove he registered.

Kummer, who pointed out he was a registered Democrat, declined to say who was paying his legal fees. He said such information is privileged, but did say people "can put two and two together."

Andres Ramirez, state director of the Voices group, said he was surprised by Kummer's planned lawsuit.

"What that attorney was claiming was that you can't just sue on behalf of unknown people, you have to have a plaintiff," he said. "The Republican Party called me after they put out a press release attacking us and said they just want to make sure people can vote. If that's the case they should help people like Brandon.

"Voices has never attacked the Republican Party. We've just said here's an individual who had his rights taken away You'd figure they'd be helping."

Ramirez said he is talking to about seven people who have claims similar to Brandon's.

He also said that he spoke to officials with the Justice Department about the allegations.

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