The Nevada Republican Party voted to censor the secretary of state, accusing her of having fully investigated allegations of fraud in the 2020 election
LAS VEGAS – The Nevada Republican Party voted to censor the secretary of state, accusing her of having fully investigated allegations of fraud in the 2020 election. She says there has been no widespread fraud and that her party itself attacks him for refusing to “put his thumb on the democratic scale.”
Barbara Cegavske, the only Republican leader in Nevada, said members of her party are disappointed with the election results and believe fraud occurred “despite the total lack of evidence to support that belief.”
Cegavske, who has overseen state elections since 2014, has repeatedly defended the results as reliable and accurate despite attacks by President Donald Trump and other Republicans.
Nevada is one of the states where the former Trump tried to subvert the results of the November 2020 elections with conspiracy demands and theories. President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the western swing state by 2 percentage points, or nearly 34,000 votes.
“Unfortunately, members of my own political party have decided to censor me simply because they are disappointed with the outcome of the 2020 election. Although I have been loyal to the Nevada Republican Party for more than two decades as an elected official , I have been firm in my commitment to oversee elections and administer Nevada’s electoral laws in a neutral, non-partisan manner, “Cegavske said in a statement on Sunday. “My job is to perform the duties of my office as enacted by the Nevada legislature, not bring water to the state Republican Party, or put my thumb on the scale of democracy. Unfortunately, members of my own party continue to believe that the 2020 general election was rigged and that I somehow participated, despite the complete lack of evidence to support this belief.
A Republican Party official who was not allowed to speak publicly confirmed to The Associated Press that the measure passed a 126-112 vote of the ruling party members at a meeting in the state capital, Carson City.
Jessica Hanson, the executive director of the Republican State Party, sent a statement from the party in which she noted that Saturday’s censorship vote “passed for little” and said it occurred after a “debate healthy “about elections.
“The Nevada Republican Party maintains our elected office at a high level. As such, this weekend the party sent a clear message that our officials must work for the people and we demand our representatives from all levels of government to keep the oath of office, ”the party said.
From a copy of the censorship resolution it was not clear what punishment the censorship entailed. Hanson did not immediately return any message asking for comments on the punishment.
In March, Nevada Republican Party President Michael McDonald presented four boxes to Cegavske’s office that he and other Republican leaders said contained evidence of more than 120,000 cases of election fraud.
But Cegavske said that after reviewing the reports, only 3,963 reports of violation of electoral integrity were filed. His office said some of those reports were already being investigated by his office and that he was reviewing the other reports to determine if an investigation was warranted.
The Secretary of State allows two-page electoral integrity violation forms to be filled out when they believe they have witnessed the violation of electoral laws, which staff are subsequently investigating.
The vote of censure was first reported by The Nevada Independent.
Cegavske is among a handful of Republicans who have been censored by their own parties in recent months after disagreeing with Trump and his supporters. Republican state parties in North Carolina, Louisiana and Alaska voted to censor the United States Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski for their votes to condemn Trump in his second impeachment process, and the Wyoming GOP went censoring U.S. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney for voting to indict Trump. The Arizona Republican Party voted in January to censor the widow of Sen. John McCain, Cindy McCain, and former Sen. Jeff Flake, both endorsed by Biden, and Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed a certificate of victory. They drink in this state.
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