Top headlines from the Board of County Commissioners meeting

Commissioners heard update on 2020 All Mail-In Primary Election

Reno, Nev. April 28, 2020. The following report highlights an important agenda item from the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners meeting:

1. Registrar of Voters and Deputy Secretary of State present to Commissioners about 2020 Elections. Washoe County Registrar of Voters, Deanna Spikula, and Deputy Secretary of State, Wayne Thornley, updated the Commission on the upcoming June 9, 2020 Primary Election mail-in ballot process and same-day registration.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 24 the Nevada Secretary of State, Barbara Cegavske, in collaboration with all 17 County Elections Officials, announced that the Primary Election will be conducted as an all-mail election.  All registered voters will receive an absentee, or mail-in ballot, in the mail and are encouraged to use their mailed ballot to vote in lieu of voting in person. Additionally, here are the things to know ahead of the 2020 Primary Election:

• Mail-in ballots. Ballots will be mailed April 30, and voters should begin receiving ballots in their mailboxes the week of May 4.
• Final official results timeline. Due to the new state legislation, AB 345, which enacted same-day voter registration, moving forward all same-day ballots, or provisional ballots, will need to be verified through the state in a 7-day+ process. No official results will be released before all provisional ballots have been verified.
• Voter fraud safeguards. As a member of Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center, the Registrar of Voters Office has access to election-specific threat intelligence products, security best practices and cybersecurity alerts and advisories. Additional fraud protection for same-day voting entails the requirement of voting at the same location as registration, near real-time communication between the poll locations and database, and final State verification process before ballot can officially be cast.

For the full presentation heard today, please click here. For information regarding the Washoe County 2020 Primary Election, please click here.

2. Commissioners approve lease agreement for Registrar of Voters equipment. Due to the increases of county voting equipment and supplies that are necessary to conduct 2020 elections, Washoe County has agreed to expand the current warehouse lease agreement to extend the agreement and add an additional 2,400 square feet to the existing 10,513 square feet of storage space. The current lease will expire in April and approval of the new lease will allow continuation of occupancy and additional warehouse space. This lease provides the best flexibility for Washoe County, while the Registrar of Voters finalizes funding sources or other solutions for storage space.

3. New solar renewable energy facility with battery storage in Washoe County. The Washoe county Board of County Commissioners have approved a resolution initiating an amendment to the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan to establish a new connection line from the Fish Springs Ranch, LLC solar generation project to the NV Energy power grid.  Fish Springs Solar, LLC, is to be established 45 miles north of Reno, near Flannigan. 

The Fish Springs Solar, LLC project has been approved by the Washoe County Planning Commission and is awaiting review and approval by the Regional Planning Authority.  The project is anticipated to create 400 construction jobs in our region and will provide the community with a sustainable energy resource that can scale up and down as energy needs require. This will be constructed in two phases:

• The first phase will take approximately 10 months to install 100-megawatt of renewable solar energy through solar arrays and accompanying battery storage.
• The second phase will take approximately 12 months to install 200-megawatts of renewable solar power through solar arrays and accompanying battery storage.

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