New groups aim to restore faith in election system, uphold democracy

Two former Nevada governors and other top elected leaders have joined separate efforts to restore confidence in Nevada’s election system.

Former Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican, and former Speaker of the Nevada Assembly Richard Perkins (D-Henderson) will serve on the bipartisan Nevada board of the Democracy Defense Project (DDP), a new nonprofit launched Tuesday that is focusing on eight battleground states: Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.

Meanwhile, former Republican Gov. Robert List and state Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert (R-Reno) are co-leading RightCount Nevada, another new nonprofit engaged in battleground states that seeks to restore confidence in elections.

Sandoval — a popular two-term governor who has largely stayed out of the political fray since becoming UNR’s president in 2020 — said that representatives on the Democracy Defense Project’s board include people who have served in positions at every level of government from both parties, and all share a “commitment to democracy and free and fair elections.”

“This is truly an effort, regardless of the candidate that an individual supports, that they can feel good about their vote and after the outcome of the election feel good about that as well,” Sandoval said in an interview with The Nevada Independent .

The efforts aim to address a gradual loss of faith in the country’s electoral system during the last two decades and the perception of a “stolen” election in 2020 despite President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump and no evidence of widespread voter fraud . As Trump and Biden gear up for a rematch, leaders of the two organizations say that it’s essential that voters understand that Nevada’s election system is safe and secure before they exercise their right to cast a ballot.

RightCount launched last week in Nevada alongside chapters in three other battleground states: Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin. In an interview with The Nevada Independent , List said the recently formed national organization approached him to bring a chapter to Nevada, which he thinks is necessary given that “there’s been a serious erosion in trust and confidence of the election process.”

“Our message is simply: You need to vote to participate,” List said. “Our democracy depends upon it, and you as an individual have a responsibility to take part in that democracy, and you can trust that your vote will be counted.”

Sandoval said he was not aware of any effort to collaborate between the two groups but expects them to be “working in parallel for the same objective.” He added that the more organizations working on building trust and confidence in the electoral process, the better.

On its website , RightCount Nevada describes itself as an “educational organization” focused on affirming the security and integrity of elections, sharing information about policy changes and building trust among voters. Representatives of RightCount at the national level said in a statement that the nonprofit was founded in response to increasing threats against election officials and growing numbers of Republican and independent voters who express little to no confidence in the election system.

Little information is available about the organization’s finances because the IRS granted it a 501(c)3 nonprofit status in late May, meaning it does not have to disclose its donors. RightCount representatives declined to identify any of their funding sources to The Nevada Independent but wrote in the statement that it had received donations from a “mix of nonprofits and individuals that align with our mission to help fortify and protect the rule of law in the tabulation of voting.”

Similar to RightCount, the Democracy Defense Project is a newly launched 501(c)4 nonprofit, which means that there are not many details available on the organization’s finances. However, a spokesperson noted that the organization is financially supported by Democratic and Republican donors.

Sandoval said his understanding is that backers of the Democracy Defense Project all share the same goal of having fair elections and trust in the electoral process. He disagreed with a question about whether he worries about the lack of transparency surrounding the project’s backers or whether this involves so-called “dark money,” or political spending meant to influence a voter's decision, where the money’s source is unknown.

“That’s not a phrase I would use in this context,” he said. “The singular objective, and that’s why I agreed to be a part of this, is to have trust in elections and to avoid what happened in 2020.”

Polling conducted on behalf of RightCount Nevada this year found that 38 percent of Republican voters and 32 percent of independent voters have little or no confidence that the 2024 elections in Nevada will be accurate in terms of ballot casting and counting. RightCount’s launch in Nevada was part of a coordinated rollout among the four states, with moderate and conservative Republicans in other states also publishing op-eds and videos within a similar timeframe.

RightCount Nevada’s launch video featured various Republican voters, including an Army veteran, a retired firefighter and elected officials speaking about how Nevada’s election system is safe and secure.

“It used to be, win or lose, we trust our elections,” Seevers Gansert, who led Senate Republicans in 2023 but isn’t running for re-election, said in the video. “RightCount’s trying to get us back to that place.”

List said that RightCount Nevada is primarily focused on reaching out to Republican voters. He said he believes that some of the doubts and misinformation around the state’s election process surround Nevada’s recent adoption of a largely all-mail voting system before the 2020 election.

“There have been all kinds of lawsuits flying around, and those raise questions and doubts on the part of people and, in the end, we know that the system still works,” List said. “While there are slip ups here and there, from time to time, in a handful of situations, they’re never big enough to actually influence the outcome of an election.”

Seevers Gansert told The Nevada Independent that voters have legitimate questions, and it’s important not to dismiss or ignore them. She said the group will work to illuminate and explain election processes, such as how mail ballots are safely stored, how election machines are not connected to the internet and how ballot tabulation takes place.

Faith in elections has been shaken during the last four years by conspiracy theories such as the “Big Lie ,” an unfounded claim by Trump that the 2020 election was stolen, which has been linked to significant turnover within the election workforce and increased harassment and violence toward election workers. The false narratives have also resulted in efforts across the state and country to hand count paper ballots because of unfounded fears that voting machines can be hacked and are error-prone .

In 2022, GOP nominees in Nevada running for U.S. Senate, attorney general and secretary of state and about a third of candidates in state legislative primaries either cast doubt on the electoral process or supported the “Big Lie.”

Residents and elected officials in rural Nevada have also raised myriad claims of voter fraud opportunities created by voting machines . List, a 10-year consultant for Dominion Voting Systems, a provider of election equipment that was often named in those conspiracy theories, vouched for the accuracy of the machines at meetings in Elko and Lincoln counties.

More recently, Trump-aligned groups have challenged the state’s law permitting the acceptance of mail ballots up to four business days after polls close , so long as those ballots are postmarked by Election Day, and filed a lawsuit alleging that Nevada had insufficiently maintained its voter rolls ( the case was dismissed ), among other election process-related challenges.

Perkins — who spent 14 years in the Legislature and now runs a lobbying firm — told The Nevada Independent he got involved in the Democracy Defense Project after they contacted him. He said the group shares his principles about the safety, security and transparency of elections.

“I don't think that, at least in my lifetime, our republic has been under more of an attack. And a lot of that attack is founded in the attack on our electoral system,” Perkins said. “Our democracy is truly based upon electoral participation, and to the extent that those folks don't go out and vote, we're worse off for it.”

Turnout in the June primary election was 19 percent. List posited that the historically low turnout could be attributed to the state’s automatic voter registration system , which may have increased the number of registered voters but does not guarantee voter engagement, or to a lack of faith in the election system. The low turnout has also been attributed to the lack of competitive races in the primary at the top of the ticket, especially in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race, where Republican Sam Brown was considered the front-runner from day one, and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) had no serious competitors.

List said RightCount Nevada will work with county clerks and registrars of voters to identify where there are questions and help communicate answers to the public, and that proof of their success will be seen in turnout on Election Day in November and increased trust in the election system.

Similarly, Perkins said he hopes the Democracy Defense Project will reinstill confidence in the election process regardless of party affiliation.

“We're not leaning towards any group whatsoever,” Perkins said. “I don't care if you have an ‘R,’ a ‘D’ or any other indicator after your name. If you try to tear down our election system, we're going to point it out.”

Editor’s note: This story appears in Indy Elections, The Nevada Independent’s newsletter dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the 2024 elections. Sign up for the newsletter here.