Voter registration groups decry ban at courthouse

By Timothy Pratt

Thursday, July 17, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Republicans, Democrats and other groups are no longer able to transform newly minted citizens into voters at the U.S. courthouse downtown.

Since the George Federal Building opened in 2000, a changing cast of private organizations, as well as the two major parties, had set up voter registration tables on the first floor after each swearing-in ceremony for new citizens.

But a recent dust-up at the courthouse over who should be allowed to do the task resulted last month in the banning of everyone but the Clark County Election Department.

The Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and Democracia USA, two local nonprofit organizations that were at the courthouse in recent months, say the decision is unfair. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada says it’s bad policy.

According to Gene Gibson, spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, the federal agency that manages such real estate, the whole thing started in late May, when there was a “hullabaloo” at the courthouse over an unidentified member of a group registering voters wearing a T-shirt with a candidate’s message. Gibson doesn’t know what group or which candidate.

But the federal Hatch Act, Gibson points out, does not allow partisan activities in federal buildings.

A court employee brought the T-shirt to the attention of a GSA representative at the downtown building, who consulted the agency’s legal counsel.

The result: “We are denying all voter registration applications and we have established a working relationship with Clark County Election Department,” Gibson said. She added that her agency’s staff at the Las Vegas building had been “flexible and very loose” and needed to ensure that future voter registration activities are nonpartisan.

Launce Rake, spokesman for the leadership alliance, said “any accusation that we engaged in partisan activity is completely false.” He said his organization is appealing the decision. He also noted that his group and Democracia USA working together were able to supply enough people to adequately handle the flow of dozens of new citizens after a swearing-in ceremony, and that having Spanish-speaking staff was important given the high percentage of Hispanics among new citizens. He’s concerned that the election department may not have enough people, including bilingual staff.

Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters, said he didn’t think the county would have a problem supplying sufficient field registrars, including Spanish speakers.

July 11 was the second outing for the county at the site. The swearing-in ceremony was relatively small, with only 18 new citizens. The county had four staffers. Two were bilingual. The staff will be accompanied by field registrars, who are volunteers, on future dates, said Brenda Miller, field operations coordinator.

The rush of new citizens and their families and friends took only 10 minutes, but the election staffers managed to register seven people, three of them using forms in Spanish. One of them was Carmen Malpartida from Peru, who asked for a form in Spanish, she said, “because it’s easier.”

Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada, called the GSA’s decision “bad policy.” He noted that voter participation has historically been low in the Las Vegas Valley and that there should be more, not fewer, groups registering new voters.

Lomax said he was “aware that these other organizations are irritated.”

Still, he pointed out, “we all have the same goal” — registering voters.

Gibson wants to make sure the same problem doesn’t occur at the nearly 1,100 other federal buildings in Nevada, Arizona, California and Hawaii.

So she’s going to send a reminder to all of them.

“We are going to make sure all federal employees are aware of the Hatch Act,” she said.

“Coming close to elections, this is when these activities get more intense.”