Election Certification

When the commissioners of Washoe County, Nevada, met in July 2024 to certify the results of several primary election recounts, their sign-off should have been perfunctory. Instead, a volatile mix of election denialism, confusion, and faulty legal advice led the commission to vote 3–2 against certifying the results — an unprecedented scenario in the state’s 160-year history, even in Nevada’s “swingiest” county. In a bizarre turn of events, one of the refusing commissioners even voted against certifying her own victory. footnote1_vod7DF0GC6yzk0gsghpKHFXJHCb0mBNDSHGXGheRHY4_mj5R7PKuNVx41 Jim Rutenberg, “The Army of Election Officials Ready to Reject the Vote,” The New York Times, updated November 6, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/magazine/far-right-election-results.html; and Lucien Bruggeman et al., “Protecting Your Vote: Nevada’s ‘Swingiest’ County Emerges as Key Battleground in Election Certification Fight,” ABC News, October 20, 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/US/protecting-vote-nevadas-swingiest-county-emerges-key-battleground/story?id=114928056.

Certification — the statutory step that marks the end of the vote-counting process — has historically served as a mandatory and uneventful formality after the excitement of an election winds down. In the weeks after Election Day, local officials (typically a local election board or canvassing board) complete a series of checks to make sure that all votes are counted, resolve any discrepancies in the vote totals, and verify that the results are accurate — a process known as the canvass. Once the canvass has concluded, they must formally “certify,” or sign off on, the completion of that process by a specific date set by state law. They then deliver the results to state officials, who conduct their own canvass and certify the results for statewide elections. footnote2_VcmoMZh1xA2wKFPz6237caPkD0ktSIEqU0-hDHQtbVY_rjHJbZaenYmP2 Edgardo Cortés, Elizabeth Howard, and Derek Tisler, “Roadmap to the Official Count in the 2024 Election,” Brennan Center for Justice, updated September 24, 2024, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/roadmap-official-count-2024-election. For more information on how certification works at the local and state level, see All Voting is Local, Brennan Center for Justice, Campaign Legal Center, and Protect Democracy, Election Certification Processes and Guardrails, September 18, 2024, https://www.brennancenter.org/series/election-certification-processes-and-guardrails.  Certification is thus procedurally important but substantively narrow: It confirms that all the necessary steps in the postelection process have taken place.

For more than a century, state courts around the country have affirmed that once vote totals are final, certification is not optional. footnote3_SybREcFP4tPTqTIOvwTn4qHYCdEvbX7-w2z0gdjyw_tTOg3foDAU0p3 Lauren Miller and Will Wilder, “Certification and Non-Discretion: A Guide to Protecting the 2024 Election,” Stanford Law & Policy Review 35, no. 1 (2024): 29–31, https://law.stanford.edu/publications/certification-and-non-discretion-a-guide-to-protecting-the-2024-election.  It is not the time to investigate the results or weigh in on legal issues. Instead, state laws create clear processes to ensure that any challenges to an election are resolved impartially and with procedural safeguards in place to protect the vote. footnote4_yg—htMnIVSsvQh3vCc8TJiy307pYk1bKYqBz7nYOVg_krQMSmurSdBy4 Miller and Wilder, “Certification and Non-Discretion,” 29–31. See also, e.g., Adams v. Fulton County, No. 24CV011584, 2024 WL 4592443, at *5, 5n15 (Fulton Cnty. Super. Ct. Oct. 14, 2024) (explaining that while local certifying officials in Georgia may not “refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance,” that prohibition “does not leave the [official] without recourse or the means to voice substantive concerns about an election outcome,” because Georgia’s “election code has a tested mechanism for addressing alleged fraud and abuse: election contests”); and Hall v. Stuart, 198 Va. 315, 323 (1956) (explaining that in relation to local electoral boards’ duties, “questions of illegal voting, and fraudulent practices, are to be passed upon by another tribunal”).  But in Washoe County, a multiyear movement to upend that status quo created a perfect storm.

In 2020, Washoe County’s longest-serving commissioner, Jeanne Herman, became one of the first officials in the election denial movement to vote against certification, rejecting the results of President Joe Biden’s win because, she claimed, “the election was improper.” footnote5_-j2QFTBSjUMXnYUKbyJa0p3ugzWzd-O6MFrG2-WSgQ_vjhUnRDv8TL05 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.” Herman has served on the commission since 2014. Washoe County, NV, “Vice Chair Jeanne Herman,” Board of County Commissioners, accessed June 9, 2025, https://www.washoecounty.gov/bcc/profile/5-herman_jeanne.php.  At the time, the four other commissioners outvoted Herman. Undeterred, she later voted against certifying both the 2022 primary and general elections. footnote6_qhlgwxujnahJhIkdyXYpRyASyk4M5H0u7WU68vf9PY_y4Cf6Fr3zD6a6 Carly Sauvageau, Jannelle Calderon, and Naoka Foreman, “County Leaders Vote to Certify Results of Primary Election After Skeptics Push Back,” The Nevada Independent, June 24, 2024, https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/county-leaders-vote-to-certify-results-of-primary-election-after-skeptics-push-back; and Ben Margiott, “Washoe County Certifies 2022 Midterm Election Results,” KRNV News 4 (Reno, NV), November 18, 2022, https://mynews4.com/news/local/washoe-county-nevada-certifies-2022-midterm-general-election-voting-results.

In 2022, a second member who had expressed doubts about the 2020 presidential election, Mark Clark, was elected to the commission. footnote7_6RjqyREUXUClmpkjqyW1RNqdIttXwkVnf3KwKrJ8bM_kvIt2U3ErHnu7 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.”  Clark’s candidacy was financed by a growing movement of election deniers, including local millionaire Robert Beadles. footnote8_YMBxnVfnKeiJ2E0bTjqLyW5rZ8wa1J4SuFEgyycGqfw_flxBmDzFAexI8 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials”; Tabitha Mueller et al., “GOP Donor Trying to Reshape Nevada Politics Pushes Radical Conspiracy Theories, Repeatedly Cites Antisemitic Propaganda,” The Nevada Independent, updated November 15, 2022, https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/gop-donor-trying-to-reshape-nevada-politics-pushes-radical-conspiracy-theories-repeatedly-cites-antisemitic-propaganda; and April Corbin Girnus, “Refusal to Certify Washoe County Election Results Meant to Sow Distrust, Advocates Warn,” This Is Reno, July 11, 2024, https://thisisreno.com/2024/07/refusal-to-certify-washoe-county-election-results-meant-to-sow-distrust-advocates-warn.  Together, Herman and Clark voted against certifying the county’s 2024 primary results on the basis of ballot printing errors — even though the county and court system properly addressed them outside the certification process. footnote9_jsbzUxRByNpTWpOcGv9GW6Ec0LN6QP9hEk5QqubCI_ix3qoZIpnHF79 Ben Margiott, “Washoe Commission Narrowly Certifies Election Results, Registrar Vows Fixes After Errors,” KRNV News 4 (Reno, NV), June 21, 2024, https://mynews4.com/news/local/washoe-commission-narrowly-certifies-election-results-registrar-vows-fixes-after-errors. The county saw two printing errors. First, ballots sent to voters who lived south of Rancho San Rafael Park in Reno did not show candidates for Assembly District 27 and Senate District 15. The 265 voters affected by the error were notified by letter and received new ballots by mail. News 4 and Fox 11 Digital Staff, “Washoe County Voters Living South of Rancho San Rafael Park Missing Races on Ballot,” KRNV News 4 (Reno, NV), May 22, 2024, https://mynews4.com/news/local/washoe-county-voters-living-south-of-rancho-san-rafael-park-missing-races-on-ballot. Second, sample ballots omitted the Republican primary for Assembly District 40. Losing candidate Drew Ribar brought a legal action that went up to the state supreme court, which rejected his challenge in part because Ribar raised “no concerns with either the District 40 race or his name being omitted from the ballots voted in the primary election.” Ribar v. Washoe County, No. 88901, 2024 WL 3665320, at *2 (Nev. Aug. 5, 2024).  Once again, the other three commissioners outvoted them. footnote10_GwldPqD2Ptb593X3hGihb8rL4xMZIyUbpCmAsdPgQe4_j5wbIJIQhk9j10 Margiott, “Washoe Commission Narrowly Certifies Election Results.”

The commission’s 2–3 split flipped, however, after Beadles financed recounts of several local primary races (none of which were affected by the ballot printing errors). Those recounts forced a second certification of the 2024 primary results, including for the primary race of County Commissioner Clara Andriola. footnote11_5KACrVXL1jmzQAc7GnJkWvOl76xM2gFydTjdngpkns_oOA9eXZATZq411 News 4 and Fox 11 Digital Staff, “Washoe County Slated to Finish Recount for 3 Local Races by End of Monday,” KRXI Fox 11 (Reno, NV), July 2, 2024, https://foxreno.com/news/local/washoe-county-slated-to-have-election-recount-done-for-3-local-races-by-end-of-monday.  Andriola won her primary by nearly 19 points, and the recount confirmed the initial result. footnote12_BTE7iJj7JnFW4ROlAiYufXi7BMJv66F1fKzk9Vm0U_xSdz4a1VArNS12 Madeleine May, “Fears Grow About Election Deniers’ Influence After Bizarre Decision in Nevada Race,” CBS News, July 13, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nevada-election-deniers-influence-reno.  But at the public hearing to certify the recounts, an angry crowd spent several hours raising allegations about the primaries that ranged from small administrative errors to outlandish claims about Serbian efforts to manipulate voting machines. footnote13_6RjqyREUXUClmpkjqyW1RNqdIttXwkVnf3KwKrJ8bM_oj2hh7fxaqjS13 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.”  At one point, Beadles himself offered an unsubstantiated data analysis that he claimed proved election interference. footnote14_TSZ8khrUU77qU1A3vk5qfmDbjHJZlLoUUwXf9hqSwQ_voDeHFoOIEn314 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials”; Tabitha Mueller, “After Washoe Recount and Revote, Experts Say Commission’s Action Undermined Democracy,” The Nevada Independent, July 21, 2024, https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/after-washoe-recount-and-revote-experts-say-commissions-action-undermined-democracy; and Carly Sauvageau, “Politicians Are Reporting More Harassment. Just Ask Candidates in Washoe County Races,” The Nevada Independent, May 26, 2024, https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/politicians-are-reporting-more-harassment-just-ask-candidates-in-washoe-county-races.

Andriola, who was new to her role (the governor had appointed her to the commission in 2023 to fill a Republican vacancy), grew concerned. footnote15_r7LADuBM6qGUn14uucsdTlHcG1grtPWy2DLHHGQo9U_o5qJNmMGPstH15 Office of the Nevada Governor, “Governor Lombardo Appoints Clara Andriola to District 4 Seat on Washoe County Commission,” press release, April 5, 2023, https://gov.nv.gov/Newsroom/PRs/2023/2023–04–05_WashoeCountyCommission.  Did she and the other commissioners have the discretion to reject the election’s outcome in light of the crowd’s complaints, or did they have a mandatory duty to certify the results? footnote16_Q-oJX8fi7pcAur4kzFLt7jS33NGH9Tg2bQkK9IqBf7A_nfO07lMqNTzk16 “Nevada’s Washoe County Votes Against Certifying Recount Results of 2 Local Primaries,” CBS News, July 10, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nevada-county-refuses-to-certify-recount-election-results; and Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.”  Her position was further complicated by sustained harassment from election skeptics. footnote17_4Q-xhRw-lnYMM-B5KQNXBKdGNJwYJqP9taDSxW3HYU_tpQn3wtkr9cI17 Sauvageau, “Politicians Are Reporting More Harassment.” Andriola was not alone; another Washoe County commissioner faced harassment so severe that she was forced to move. And in 2023, one commissioner discovered that a private investigator had tracked her for seven months by installing a GPS device on her family’s car. Mark Robison, “Lawsuit: Secret GPS Device Used to Track Washoe Commissioner Hartung, Family,” Reno Gazette Journal, February 24, 2023, https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2023/​02/24/lawsuit-gps-device-used-to-track-washoe-commissioner-hartung-family-vaughn/69941004007. See also Linda So, Joseph Tanfani, and Jason Szep, “Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorists Hound Election Officials Out of Office,” Reuters, October 19, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-nevada-washoe.  Beadles, for example, disparaged her as “Clara the Clown” on his blog. footnote18_BaUGvHWkPNKC7PQYA4FNCQyKvuhhqYiPMkGHhJA1o_vXlYOsCG8bJh18 Sauvageau, “Politicians Are Reporting More Harassment.”

The commissioners turned to the county’s assistant district attorney, Nate Edwards, for an answer. As legal counsel for the commission, Edwards should have provided them with a simple, clear instruction: Certifying the final vote totals is a mandatory duty, and refusing to do so could result in criminal charges under state law. footnote19_D-aiFcxfe-wdGfCPsdVlTbPE362F3J8znorpQkdDkM_bLeUAojXWuLF19 Brennan Center for Justice et al., “Nevada Election Certification Processes and Guardrails,” September 18, 2024, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/nevada-election-certification-processes-and-guardrails.  Edwards, however, did the opposite. “You don’t have to vote yes on that, you don’t have to vote no,” he said. “You vote your conscience.” footnote20_XRcJRdUW8todsxf9lrBaw78oOph7snIQjVN4utE6dE_pAzGQCMLfbiL20 Mark Robison, “Washoe County Commission Votes 3–2 Against Certifying Results in Primary Election Recount,” Reno Gazette Journal, July 9, 2024, https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/09/washoe-county-commission-primary-recount/74344823007.

By her own account, Andriola genuinely wanted to provide a platform for her constituents, and the state’s certification deadline meant that she had limited time to confirm whether Edwards’s advice was correct. Acting on his instructions, she cast the decisive vote with Clark and Herman against certification. footnote21_Al8Vwf4aUlOJXr1dMes1xT-oNgvum80vtL4YuYghORE_phfuJmqIWzh821 Robison, “Washoe County Commission Votes 3–2 Against Certifying Results”; and Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.”

That evening, however, after doing additional research, Andriola realized the error in Edwards’s advice.footnote22_6RjqyREUXUClmpkjqyW1RNqdIttXwkVnf3KwKrJ8bM_jOyGTKWdi61q22 Rutenberg, “Army of Election Officials.”   It would take another full week — and a lawsuit filed by Nevada’s secretary of state — before the county commission could meet to reverse its mistake. footnote23_2YzWOe0NgTnaAm7HbEX19LpgiimZwqWwfV3NKhbZ1I_tznkW0jMlAek23 April Corbin Girnus, “Washoe County Commission Reverses Course, Acknowledges Election Certification Mandatory,” Nevada Current, July 17, 2024, https://nevadacurrent.com/2024/07/17/washoe-county-commission-reverses-course-acknowledges-election-certification-mandatory. Following the county’s vote against certification, the secretary of state, represented by the attorney general, filed a mandamus petition against the commission with the state supreme court. Petition, Aguilar v. Washoe County Board of County Commissioners, No. 88965 (Nev. July 11, 2024). After the secretary of state filed the petition but before the court could decide the case, the Washoe County commission reversed course and certified the canvass in a 4–1 vote. In response, the state supreme court dismissed the petition as moot. Aguilar, No. 88965, 553 P.3d 1002 (Table) (Nev. 2024).  And when it did, the vote remained contested. Andriola and Clark changed their votes, although Clark acknowledged that he did so “with a heavy heart” and only after the district attorney, Edwards’s boss, sent him a letter explaining that refusing to certify could result in criminal charges. Herman persisted in her no vote, reasoning that “there are hills to climb and there are hills to die on and this might be one of those.” footnote24_jxiCG5qKpduaM4cdXSuj95LpKGTg7LuIKVwozk-AXB8_mhdPGPucrn5D24 Girnus, “Washoe County Commission Reverses Course.”

Washoe County was hardly alone in its certification dispute. Since 2020, more than 30 rogue local officials in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia have refused to certify election results. footnote25_khbXPgEaAxWgH9LgIa5p4xJw0EnrAQqAuXXlbQOREu0_bhyimXxzTXOH25 Miller and Wilder, “Certification and Non-Discretion,” 14–23; Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Election Certification Under Threat, August 12, 2024, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/election-certification-under-threat; and Emily Rodriguez et al., Election Certification Is Not Optional, Protect Democracy, March 2024, https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PD_County-Cert-WP_v03.1.pdf.  In many of these cases, the refusing officials cited claims rooted in election denialism — the false idea that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that widespread fraud persists in U.S. election systems. In other cases, officials such as Andriola appeared to act in response to pressure or incorrect legal advice.

Fortunately, courts and state officials intervened in each of these instances to compel certification.footnote26_QhVU2pkWycYyvp3-dSvF0nY9GTYBCABQWbsFYEE8t4_nSSWQuikgvo126 Miller and Wilder, “Certification and Non-Discretion,” 14–23; CREW, Election Certification Under Threat; and Rodriguez et al., Election Certification Is Not Optional.  But as Washoe County illustrates, that intervention came at the cost of significant time, effort, and scarce government resources during an already busy election season. Local certification delays threatened to disrupt important state and federal certification deadlines. And with each day that they went unresolved, the disputes stoked misinformation and conspiracy theories, fueling distrust in elections and the people who run them. footnote27_C7djVFrPAn3mnfQguYs163I67hw9KG88vMJmiY96dCY_b299V6pIKQrJ27 See, e.g., Girnus, “Refusal to Certify Washoe County Election Results.” See also, e.g., JoAnna Suriani, “Local Officials Cannot Block Election Certification. But They Can Fuel Disinformation,” Just Security, October 28, 2024, https://www.justsecurity.org/104249/local-officials-election-certification-disinformation.

Over the last several years, many of the states affected by certification disputes have been forced into an untenable position, grappling with the sudden and unexpected spike in refusals to certify while also trying to plan for a contentious presidential election. Now that the 2024 cycle has concluded, state legislatures have an opportunity to streamline, clarify, and shore up their statutory frameworks to both prevent and more efficiently resolve future certification disputes.

To be sure, some of the loudest voices against certifying elections have fallen silent since President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. footnote28_m4kUbFWWU3zF8UFWTRExb3nUk5lpmKNJLovJQXDpdiw_gdXdDkgqQCRD28 Stuart A. Thompson, Jim Rutenberg, and Steven Lee Myers, “After Trump Took the Lead, Election Deniers Went Suddenly Silent,” The New York Times, November 6, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/technology/trump-election-denial.html.  But many have not. footnote29_hB95mn9kOzrHBOGBOzcxiaupCYrj-QArRyuNxKLJhB0_heLNLarxNEq929 Sam Gringlas, “Georgia Counties Certify the Election, as Fraud Claims Dissipate After Trump Win,” NPR, November 12, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/nx-s1–5187043/georgia-election-certification-trump-results (“While concerns about irregularities and certification have fallen off, they have not disappeared entirely.”).  The volume of certification disputes between 2020 and 2024 demonstrates that they are likely to arise whenever a contentious race emerges — that is, in every election cycle. Indeed, many certification disputes have become untethered from the presidential election outcome altogether, instead serving as a mechanism for expressing disagreement or doubt as to any aspect of an election, including for local and state races. footnote30_afZ4-NQ-USVzpsQ4BP9J1riP6RplQyBrvS3vrpalXlA_sH5q6MHsqw3V30 See, e.g., Beth LeBlanc, “In Delta County, Canvassers Decline to Certify Election, Delay Start for New Commissioners,” The Detroit News, May 16, 2024, https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/16/delta-county-canvassers-reject-certification-of-recall-election/73716383007; and Sara Wilson, “Canvass Board Members in 7 Colorado Counties Vote Against Election Certification,” Colorado Newsline, December 4, 2024, https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/12/04/canvass-colorado-election-certification.

This report lays out the steps that state legislatures can take to protect against certification refusals. It begins by walking through several certification disputes that took place during the 2024 election cycle. While it discusses some disputes from prior election cycles, it focuses principally on recent disputes that provide a clearer picture of how future attacks on certification will take shape. It then uses those disputes to identify principles for reform that will provide the strongest safeguards against future attempts to thwart certification.

Although each state’s certification framework differs in its details, these principles fall into four generally applicable categories. First, state legislatures should add to their existing certification statutes language that explicitly clarifies officials’ mandatory duty to certify elections. Second, bodies charged with amending court rules should update those rules to create expedited paths for litigants seeking court orders to compel certification. Third, state legislatures should amend their election laws to grant state officials explicit authority to intervene and complete the certification process if a county refuses to do so. Further, the refusing county should bear any costs associated with that intervention. Finally, state legislatures should create an explicit private right of action for voters to bring legal actions to compel certification.

These simple but effective reforms would protect against the chaos caused by certification refusals, benefiting voters, candidates, and election officials alike.