Blackened windows shroud the notorious Hustler Erotic Ultra Club in Las Vegas, casting an illicit mystery about the premises. Already notorious as the epicenter of sin and pageantry, Las Vegas recently added a more unexpected scandal to its list: the Hustler Club, a gaming property, and an industrial park were all found to be wrongly listed as home addresses by a sizable number of voters from Clark County, Nevada, as revealed by a recent lawsuit.
A curious state of affairs indeed as this off-Strip adult entertainment hub became an unintended focal point of an eyebrow-raising electoral controversy. Unexpected perhaps, unless one accounts for Frederick H. Kraus and Joey Paulos, private citizens, along with the Public Interest Legal Foundation who uncovered this bizarre anomaly. As regulations stipulate, voters are mandated to cite their legitimate residential address or risk not being registered to vote.
According to the federal lawsuit filed last week, Clark County Registrar, Lorena Portillo was allegedly negligent in confirming the accuracy of voters’ addresses. In a statement reminiscent of a Lewis Carroll novel, J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, stated, “In Clark County, people are registered to vote from strip clubs, casinos, gas stations and more wild addresses where it appears no one could reasonably live.”
Subsequently, the Foundation issued a plea to the court, urging Nevada election officials to scrutinize any commercial addresses appearing in the voter roll. An act deemed pivotal in rectifying these irregularities before the pivotal 2024 election, lest ballots continue to arrive at these unexpected locales.
Unfolding further are a myriad of other peculiar addresses: a sushi restaurant, an industrial park in Boulder City, a Meineke Car Care Center, Trigg Laboratories — a purveyor of personal lubricants, Binion’s Gambling Hall, and even federal facilities.
In a similar vein, the Public Interest Legal Foundation leveled allegations against the interim voter registrar of Washoe County, Carrie-Ann Burgess, for comparable infractions. Voters in that region listed a public park, an office building, and even a coffee shop as their living spaces.
The Las Vegas strip is no stranger to scandal, but in 2022, state officials found themselves with a staggering 95,556 ballots mailed to these bad addresses, accounting for nearly 5% of Nevada’s total voters. A significant majority, with 69,698, were mailed to Las Vegas or elsewhere in Clark County.
Nevada’s close electoral races in recent years have heightened the necessity for accuracy in voter rolls, specifically considering its strategic importance in the upcoming presidential election. Following the lawsuit filed against Clark County, Stephanie Wheatley, a county public information officer, maintained the county’s policy of not commenting on “pending litigation.”
Washoe County’s spokesperson, Bethany Drysdale, reaffirmed their commitment to adhering to state and federal laws in maintaining the integrity of their voter rolls. It remains to be seen how this dicey situation is rectified, a sentiment echoed by the churning neon chaos of Las Vegas, ever humming with the drama of the unexpected.
