Public floods Washoe County with detailed election process inquiries

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — Everyone is watching the election process closely, now more than ever. That's especially true in Washoe County where observers are keeping tabs on the system from their own dedicated room.

In the ballot processing room where all Washoe County ballots are sorted, counted, and cured — there's a side room encased in Plexiglas. There, people can sit and watch part of the election process.

Washoe County says it's a step towards transparency.

"We have spent quite a bit of time, you know, planning out that room. So that way observers have that opportunity for that that fair observation to make sure everything's visual" said George Guthrie, the spokesman for the Washoe County Registrar of Voters.

But seeing isn't necessarily believing. What people see from the observation room often spurs many questions through one-on-one visits, emails, calls and public record requests.

"You know, maybe they were observing and they saw something going on, they can come up to me and they can say, you know, hey, what? Who what's going on here? What exactly does that machine do? What what exactly does this process mean?" said Guthrie.

News 4-Fox 11 put in a public records request to find some of the more frequent or unusual requests the Washoe County Registrar of Voters office receives which included requests to make staff badges more visible to observers, turning work computer screens toward the observation rooms and adding information signs on shelving.

One woman asked for the "name and model number" for the new Bluecrest ballot processing machine. In another request, asked to "please detail the type of work that workers are still doing in the [Registrar of Voters] processing room today." She also wanted to know "a general schematic of the cabling that connects all the cybersecure environment's components" since they're "hidden inside of conduit, walls and ceilings, the network is completely obscured." In another request asked to "please provide a map of where trays at each stage of the processing are being placed on the shelving."

The public records requests are numerous, some emails are lengthy, and the emails come in on many consecutive days and some request an immediate response.

"Yeah, we we certainly get a lot of emails, but that's again, that's just part of the process with elections," Guthrie said.

Another request wanted specific information about an employee on June 5 between the hours of 8 to 9 p.m. with a black round device and wanted to know what it was.

And one more request from September 2022 asked for "dimensions for all rooms/spaces including length, width, and height." ... "Include location of all electrical, HVAC, and plumbing components" ... "Include materials to be used in all areas to be modified or built new."

Another person even wanted to see if the county could remove a structural post that's in the way of the observation room.

All public requests that go along with the election process these days that the county spends time answering.