Commission candidate Jason Garrett Gibson talks during public comment at the Oct. 3 commissioners meeting.
A commissioner candidate who changed his party while filed as a Democrat was ruled ineligible to seek office on Friday afternoon.
Jason Garrett Gibson originally sought to run as a Natural Law candidate in March but switched to Democrat after he learned he’d have to get 100 signatures on a petition to file, Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans testified.
Under Nevada law, candidates running as Democrats or Republicans may file without obtaining the necessary signatures.
Nonpartisan Brian Dempsey, who is challenging Republican District 1 Commissioners Danny Tarkanian, followed that procedure Burgans said after the hearing.
Upon hearing that, Gibson changed his party to Democrat when he filed for office on March 15.
Burgans testified that she received notice July 13 that Gibson had changed parties to Natural Law through the DMV on July 12 and changed his mailing address. She said registration cards were sent to both Gibson’s former and new address at the Gardnerville UPS store.
According to the Nevada Supreme Court, Gibson claimed that his information was available publicly and that anyone could have made the change.
However, Burgans testified that in order to use the MyDMV program to change any information, a customer must receive a code at their email to verify their identity.
That was sufficient for District Judge Tod Young to rule on Gibson’s eligibility.
As a result of the ruling, the county will have signs up at polling places indicating that Gibson is not an eligible candidate.
Gibson didn’t attend Friday’s hearing but sent a letter that District Judge Tod Young read early in the hearing.
The judge said that while much of it was irrelevant to the proceedings, the letter indicated that Gibson received notice of the hearing but couldn’t attend because he was working.
Young found that wasn’t a sufficient reason to be absent from court.
Early in-person voting begins Saturday.
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In what could be one of the quickest turnarounds for a Nevada Supreme Court case in recent history, justices ordered a new hearing in the county’s effort to remove Jason Garrett Gibson from the ballot.
Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans, through the District Attorney’s Office, filed an appeal Tuesday from a district court order that the removal was moot because ballots had already been mailed.
Today, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded case back to District Judge Tod Young’s court for a hearing set for Friday, since early in-person voting begins on Saturday.
Justices rejected an initial challenge to Young’s order because an appeal was available, which was filed the next day.
“Burgans sought the relief of posting signs at each polling location notifying voters of Gibson’s inability to take office, if elected,” the order said.
According to state law cited in the order, the county can do that if “a court of competent jurisdiction finds in any preelection action that a person who is a candidate for any office fails to meet any qualification required for the office pursuant to the Constitution or laws of this state.”
According to the Supreme Court, Gibson asserted at a status hearing that he had not changed his party affiliation but that since his signature and passwords were publicly available, anyone could change that information without his knowledge.
“The district court did not hold an evidentiary hearing, and instead, dismissed the matter as moot because mail ballots had already been sent to voters,” the order said. “Burgans argues that the district court erred by dismissing the preelection challenge as moot. We agree.”
However, the justices said that because whether Gibson changed his party is still a question of fact, that’s yet to be determined.
