Losing primary candidate questions results

Former Nevada Assembly District 36 candidate Tina Trenner of Pahrump is part of a six-person court filing alleging a “possible” malfunction of voting machines during the June 14 primary election.

Six Republican candidates from the June 2016 primary election have filed “statements of contest” in Clark County District Court, a legal action alleging that there was a “possible and probable malfunction” in the voting or counting devices used to record and tabulate the votes, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Those requesting the procedure are from Trenner, and other GOP primary candidates who lost: Diana Orrock, Steve Sanson, Connie Foust, Mary Rooney and Blain Jones.

District 36 incumbent Assemblyman James Oscarson eked out a close 113-vote victory over Trenner, a first-time candidate who campaigned on repealing Gov. Brian Sandoval’s $1.1 billion budget package of extended and new taxes that Oscarson had voted for.

Trenner received 1,586 votes in Nye County, compared to Oscarson’s 1,348. However, the election swung to the inbumbent’s favor in Lincoln County, where he defeated Trenner 67 votes to 30, and Clark County where he outpaced her 573 to 239. And that is where Trenner’s question lies.

Trenner said Wednesday that alleged 1,800 voters in two precincts in the Logandale area located in Clark County were given the wrong registration cards.

“I feel as though those voters were confused and as a result of that confusion, we don’t have an accurate vote,” Trenner said.

Logandale is an unincorporated town in the Moapa Valley, located in Clark County.

Trenner said she wants Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria to hold a revote in the Logandale area.

“I just want to make sure that people in that area got to vote the way they wanted to vote.”

Gloria said there were no problems or malfunctions with voting machines that would have skewed the election outcome, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

“The machines are functioning properly and the canvass reflected all our totals balanced,” Gloria said Tuesday.

“There’s always people who … unfortunately have a conspiracy theory,” he added.

Gloria acknowledged some voter registration cards mailed in December in two Assembly districts contained the wrong district number. He said the mistake was discovered in January and new cards were issued.

Daniel Stewart, of DHS Law LLC, Oscarson’s attorney, said it’s the first time he had seen legal contest about voting machines filed in court, but noted that such complaints and allegations “are very common.”

“That is regrettable but not surprising,” Stewart said about the lawsuit. “I have been practicing election law for nearly eight years, and unfounded allegations about malfunctioning voting machines have been the siren song of countless losing candidates who discover that they have less appeal amongst voters at large than they thought. Such claims share both a lack of evidence and a complete lack of success.”

“I am absolutely confident that we will win again in court,” he said.

However,

Assembly GOP Majority Leader Paul Anderson, R-Las Vegas, called the maneuver an abuse of the system and sour grapes.

“What an unfortunate abuse of the election system,” Anderson said. “The votes have been tallied and we’re excited to be moving on to the general election and moving Nevada forward.”

Stewart said similar claims in the past have “never, ever proven to be factually accurate.” The people that made them lost every time they’ve raised them, he added.

“I don’t anticipate these claims have any more success than claims made before,” he said.

Oscarson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77. The Las Vegas Review-Journal contributed to this report.