Cisco Aguilar and Washoe County Allowed “VOTE here for DEMOCRATS” Signs to Stay Up for Weeks
VOTE here for DEMOCRATS sign in front of the Sparks Senior Center, a Washoe County Polling location on October 17, 2024.
Picon literally laughed out loud last week when Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar came out with his “Electioneering” Memo – how about way too little way too late. Picon has been so busy this week and we had to wait until today to get to this story.
For weeks there were signs outside polling location that were printed with “VOTE her for DEMOCRATS” and no one was turning them in, people were posting photos of the sigs on social media asking where they were coming from but no one was getting them taken down because they seemed not to know who to go to with the complaint of these signs posted at polling locations. Next time folks go to the Washoe County Registrar of Voters. Even if early voting hadn’t started at the locations, this is still a form of “electioneering” - rather crudely done, and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar knows it is and allowed it to happen.
Commissioner Mike Clark’s Facebook post on October 17, 2024.
Commissioner Mike Clark had his weekly Senior Lunch at the Sparks Senior Center, on Thursday, October 17, 2024, and a few seniors asked him about the signs and should they be there. Clark called someone at the City of Sparks (he refused to give us their name) and the signs were removed immediately. Clark said, “The City of Sparks has their act together.” That is a City of Sparks employee in the photos removing the many signs that had been up at the Sparks Senior Center, a polling location, for days, if not weeks.
City of Sparks employee removing the “VOTE her for DEMOCRATS” sigs from the Sparks Senior Center, a Washoe County Polling location, on October 17, 2024.
During the primary, the Sparks Senior Center was where candidate for City of Sparks Ward 1 City Council Chris Garvey had a Washoe County employee rip her campaign sign down from a residents fence, so Garveyr’s sign was on private property But this same Washoe County employees who works at the Sparks Senior Center saw no reason to remove all these “VOTE her for DEMOCRATS” signs. She drove past them daily. Interesting. Picon is going to be asking the county for a comment, we’ll let you be as amused as we will be with their answer.
Aguilar was aware of these signs at the polling locations, we learned yesterday at the Nevada Day Parade from an employee inside the Secretary of State’s Office that Aguilar had received calls, and seems to have decided to do nothing, but once Clark posted on his Facebook page a few days later a memo was issued by the Secretary of State’s Office regarding Electioneering.
Too little too late Cisco sort of like your lack of support for the Washoe County “Stressed Out” Interim Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess – Aguilar threw Burgess under the bus and is drinking Washoe County Manager Eric Brown’s Kool-Aid, you know, “there are no issues in the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office, everything is great.” Burgess was trying to fix issues in the Registrar of Voters Office, so why did Manager Brown need to stop her? And what issues?
Oh, and all those “VOTE her for DEMOCRATS” signs at Washoe County polling locations, well they came down the same day, October 17, 2024.
Way to go Commissioner Mike Clark for not being silent, and to post the photo, and take on the powers that be, cause a ruckus, maybe being the “arsonist inside the building” as Commissioner Alexis Hill refers to you is working.
Nevada Secretary of State Electioneering Memo Issued October 21, 2024 to the press:
I. DEFINITION
Electioneering is defined as campaigning for or against a candidate, ballot question, or political party by:
(a) Posting signs relating to the support of or opposition to a candidate, ballot question, or political party;
(b) Distributing literature relating to the support of or opposition to a candidate, ballot question, or political party;
(c) Using loudspeakers to broadcast information relating to the support of or opposition to a candidate, ballot question, or political party;
(d) Buying, selling, wearing, or displaying any badge, button, or other insigne which expressly refers to any political party or a candidate or ballot question to be voted upon at that election; or
(e) Soliciting signatures to any kind of petition.
II.PROHIBITIONS
It is unlawful inside a polling place, within 100 feet from the entrance to the building or other structure in which a polling place is located:
(a) For any person to solicit a vote or speak to a voter on the subject of marking the voter’s ballot.
(b) For any person, including an election board officer, to do any electioneering on election day
The same is unlawful inside the area of a county or city jail where a person detained in the jail may vote or within 100 feet from the entrance of the area in a jail where a person detained in the jail may vote.