Carson City Judge Rejects Legal Challenge To Voter ID Ballot Initiative

In Carson City District Court today, Repair the Vote won a legal challenge (see below) against their Voter ID ballot initiative filed to appear on the November 2024 ballot. The challenge was led by Democratic-linked attorneys Bradley Schrager, Scott Gilles, and the Elias Law Group who claimed that the initiative was unconstitutional, contained an unfunded mandate, and a “misleading, deceptive” description.

Judge William Maddox dismissed the complaint, suggesting that “it is time for the voters in Nevada to decide on this issue of Voter ID.”

The Voter ID ballot initiative amends the state constitution to require that all persons voting in person present an approved photo identification before being provided a ballot. It also requires that voters submitting a mail-in ballot provide additional verification of their identity when completing their mail-in ballot.

The plaintiff in this case, Jennifer Fleischmann Willoughby (she, her, ella), is the Director Of Development for Make The Road Nevada, a “left-of-center community organizing group that focuses on immigration issues and organizes protests, community services and political advocacy efforts among the immigrant community in Nevada.”

After the verdict, founder of Repair the Vote David Gibbs told The Globe:

“We have been collecting signatures for over two months. We have about one-third of the signatures we need. Now that the judge has rendered his decision, Nevadans will be motivated to sign the petition and our hundreds of volunteers will continue to collect signatures. The question of whether or not this ballot initiative is shot down in court, is now over. We are cleared to continue collecting signatures, and we fully expect to have enough signatures to present Nevadans an initiative that will protect the sanctity of their vote.”

This was the second lawsuit filed by Elias’s team related to Repair The Vote’s attempt to introduce Voter ID in Nevada. Last year, Repair the Vote failed to collect enough signatures after a judge   ordered them to rewrite the initiative’s description.

Marc Elias is a prolific, Democratic attorney who has filed hundreds of legal challenges to election law and also influenced changes to election procedures in a variety of states during the 2020 election by filing dozens of lawsuits and legal challenges.

During his State of the State address, Republican Governor Joe Lombardo vowed to implement Voter ID either through legislation or “at the ballot box.” During the Democratic response to Governor Lombardo’s State of the State, Speaker of the Assembly Steve Yeager proclaimed that any legislation related to election integrity would be “dead on arrival.”

Subsequently, legislation introduced by Governor Lombardo and Republican lawmakers was ignored by the Democratic majority despite over 70 percent of Nevadan’s supporting Voter ID.

When The Globe asked Democratic leadership about Lombardo’s Voter ID proposal, Attorney General Aaron Ford claimed that Voter ID was “unconstitutional.”

Under state law, supporters must gather and submit at least 102,362 signatures by July 8, 2024 to qualify for the 2024 ballot, with at least 25,591 signatures coming from each of the state’s four congressional districts. As a constitutional initiative, it would need to pass twice in subsequent elections (2024 and 2026) to take effect.