Registrar’s office prepares for June primary
1 min read
Officials with the Washoe County Registrar of Voters on Wednesday gave the news media a tour of their recently updated office and talked about efforts to balance transparency and ballot security.
Jamie Rodriguez, government affairs manager for Washoe County, showed the chain of custody for ballots and how precautions are taken so no ballot is overlooked or misread. This goes from using technology down to making sure there are not trash cans in any of the vote-counting areas.
Citizens play a role by properly filling out their ballots.
“It’s really important to read the instructions on your ballot,” she said.
Until the 2020 election, observers watching the vote count were allowed, but the opportunity was not well-known and often went relatively unused.
However in 2020, with former President Trump stoking election integrity fears and encouraging people to become observers, the role of poll watcher became sought after by more people.
Ballot counting was also more intensive. Rodriguez said that in previous years the observers’ area was little more than two chairs from where people could see what was happening.
Video by Ty O’Neil for This Is Reno.
