Nevada toughens penalties for election worker intimidation

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) on Tuesday signed into law legislation that makes it a felony to harass, threaten or intimidate election workers with the intent of influencing election outcomes or of retaliating against election workers for doing their jobs. 

The legislation comes after the 2020 presidential election saw an uptick in reported threats of violence against election workers and false claims of election fraud that spurred violence. 

Nevada follows other states that have recently passed similar laws to protect election officials, including Maine, Vermont, Washington, New Mexico and Oklahoma. 

The law, which passed unanimously in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature, makes it a crime punishable by up to four years in prison “for any person to use or threaten or attempt to use any force, intimidation, coercion, violence, restraint or undue influence with the intent to: (1) interfere with the performance of the duties of any elections official relating to an election; or (2) retaliate against any elections official for performing duties relating to an election.”

Lombardo was joined at the bill signing ceremony by the state’s first-term Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D), who made it a campaign promise in 2022 to protect election workers. 

“I want election workers to know that the secretary of state’s office has their back,” Aguilar said at the ceremony. 

More than half of Nevada’s top election officials resigned in the time between the 2020 election and the 2022 election, with many citing election threats and some citing burnout, the Associated Press reported.

The law, which takes effect immediately, also makes it a crime to publish personal or identifying information about election officials without their consent. 

Previously, the law prohibited the governor, lieutenant governor, governor-elect, lieutenant governor-elect and members of the state Legislature from soliciting or accepting money for political purposes. The new law also prohibits the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the state controller and the attorney general from doing so.