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Fears grow about election deniers’ influence after bizarre decision in Nevada race
There is growing national concern about the risk of election deniers persuading local officials to refuse certification of legitimate voting outcomes after a bizarre situation unfolded in Nevada, where a county board commissioner denied certification to her own victory.
Washoe County Board Commissioner Clara Andriola won her primary in June by nearly 19 points over her main challenger, Mark Lawson. Lawson requested a recount, which showed the initial tally in the race was valid.
And yet, at Tuesday’s commission meeting, Andriola sided with two other Republican commissioners in agreeing to not certify the results of her own election.
She said there was “a lot of information that has been shared that warrants a further investigation,” and she needed to vote her “conscience” and wanted to restore public trust after hearing many hours of public testimony about the election — some of which came from well-known election conspiracy theorists in the Washoe community.
However, in a statement to CBS News, Andriola said she’s asked to revisit her vote on the certification at a Board of Commissioners meeting on July 16, before the vote becomes final under commission rules. She offered no comment on the motivation for her initial refusal to certify the results of her own election.
Washoe County is a crucial battleground county in Nevada, which polling suggests could emerge as a battleground state in the 2024 presidential contest. It has also been a hotbed of election denialism — a movement bankrolled by a charismatic local Trump supporter.
The vote this week represented the latest sign that local officials could be persuaded by election deniers to delay or withhold certification of election results, even when election officials find that the election was free of fraud or malfeasance.
“The refusal to canvass accurate election results, required by law, has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for elections in Nevada,” said Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar in a statement on X. “It is unacceptable that any public officer would undermine confidence in our democracy.”
The Nevada secretary of state’s office and state Attorney General Aaron Ford filed a petition with the Nevada Supreme Court Wednesday asking the court to confirm the commissioners’ legal obligation to certify election results, a spokesperson from the secretary of state’s office said.
Certification of the vote is an administrative process whereby local officials are legally obligated to confirm the results of the election. There are very few instances where officials are under an obligation not to certify — typically, only when there is a successful court challenge to a vote, which is not the case in the Washoe contest. Certification doesn’t inherently mean there were no errors in the process, and in some states, it’s required before lawsuits can be filed to contest the results.
But this kind of episode — which saw local officials blocking the mundane administrative task of certifying the result — is emerging as a strategy among election deniers in pivotal presidential states around the country. Elections experts are concerned that each effort to block certification of the vote at a local level could foreshadow trouble for November’s presidential election, where there are strict deadlines for states to certify.
“Efforts to delay or derail certification could result in chaos and potentially political violence,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
“Such efforts to derail democracy are exactly what our adversaries who oppose democracy desire. And it appears those that oppose American democracy are preparing to use this tactic in November, if their preferred candidate loses,” Becker added.
Washoe officials are not alone in refusing to certify races. Recently, local officials in battleground states like Michigan and Georgia have chosen not to certify elections, citing concerns with the integrity of the elections process and often facing vocal outpourings of suspicion about voting during public comment.
In May, canvassers in Delta County, Michigan, refused to certify a recall election after a pressure campaign by local election conspiracy activists. The officials eventually certified the race after Michigan’s State Board Of Elections sent the board a letter stating the canvassers would face legal consequences for not following their mandate to certify.
Also in May, a Republican member of the Fulton County Elections Board in Georgia, Julie Adams, refused to certify the presidential primary election, citing a desire to review elections data related to voter rolls.
Adams, who was appointed to the board in February, is a regional coordinator for the Election Integrity Network, a powerful national group of election conspiracy activists led by former Trump legal adviser Cleta Mitchell. EIN seeks to undermine voting and ballot counting through the guise of election integrity.
Back in Washoe, the decision not to certify came as a surprise to Democratic Commissioner and Chair Alexis Hill.
“I am kind of shocked and sad,” said Hill shortly after the vote. “It’s not good for our republic, for our democracy.”
“The results of the recount show how incredibly effective our registrar’s office is, with all the pressure they are under,” she said.
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
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Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.