In Unanimous Ruling, State Supreme Court Approves Voter ID Ballot Measure To Move Forward

In a unanimous ruling (see below), the Nevada Supreme Court approved a voter ID ballot initiative to move forward, agreeing with a district court’s ruling that the initiative did not contain an unfunded mandate and the petition’s “description of effect” was, in fact, straightforward, succinct, and a non-argumentative summary.

“Indeed, the description of effect addresses the primary objective of the Initiative and its intended effects — an amendment to the Nevada Constitution to require voters to present valid identification when voting in person at the polls,” the Nevada Supreme Court concluded.

The challenge was led by Democratic-linked attorneys Bradley Schrager, Scott Gilles, and the Elias Law Group who represented plaintiff  Jennifer Fleischmann Willoughby (she, her, ella), who 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.”

This was the second lawsuit filed by Elias’s team related to Repair The Vote’s attempt to introduce Voter ID in Nevada.

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.

Founder of Repair The Vote David Gibbs told The Globe:

We are very happy that the state Supreme Court agreed that our petition should go forward. We are excited, and we are moving forward. But, we have never stopped. We have been collecting signatures this whole time because we anticipated that we would prevail. We have hundreds of volunteers across the whole state and we anticipate that we will have enough signatures, within the next few weeks, to qualify for the November ballot. We need 102,632 signatures. 25,591 from each congressional district. We are close to 100,000 now. Our goal is to get a minimum of 140,000 signatures at a minimum. Then voter ID will become part of the Nevada Constitution.

I do not understand why the Democratic DC establishment and Marc Elias is so opposed to voter ID. President Biden has instructed the DOJ to go after the states who have voter ID. I don’t understand why Democrats are opposed to making sure that everyone who votes is a legal, registered voter and has to verity they are the person who is voting.

Why are democrats opposed to election security and election integrity? This isn’t in accordance to our constitution and laws.

Every american should be in favor of voter ID and polls show that a majority of Americans support it.  74 percent of Nevadans, including more than half of the democrats in Nevada, support voter id. But, the Democratic establishment keeps fighting against their voters. Marc Elias has fought against us and against election integrity in numerous states.

Yet, despite their claims, election turnout in states with voter ID did not go down, especially among minority voters. Voter ID did not suppress the vote. In fact, studies show that voter ID instills voter confidence and can increase voter turnout.

We expect to have people at polling locations during early voting in the major metropolitan areas for an opportunity to sign the petition.  Or, voters can go to Repair the Vote and our staff will call them and assist them.

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 address, Speaker of the Assembly Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas)  proclaimed that any legislation related to election integrity would be “dead on arrival.” When The Globe asked Democratic leadership about Lombardo’s Voter ID proposal, Attorney General Aaron Ford claimed that voter ID was “unconstitutional.”

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, as Gibbs mentioned.

Should Repair the Vote gather enough signatures by the statutory deadline, the initiative will appear on the November ballot. As a constitutional initiative, it would need to pass twice in subsequent elections (2024 and 2026) to take effect.