Dean Heller

Dean Heller a Republican, represented the Second Congressional District of Nevada from 2007 to 2011, when he replaced John Ensign in the United States Senate.

Environmental record
For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Biography
Having grown up in Carson City, Nevada, Heller graduated from the University of Southern California in 1985. He then worked as a stockbroker before being elected to the Nevada state legislature in 1990. In 1994, he was elected Nevada's Secretary of State, a post to which he was re-elected in 1998 and 2002. He and his wife Lynn have four children. 

Nevada's Electronic Voting Machines
As Nevada's Secretary of State, Dean Heller decided to tap the knowledge of the Nevada Gaming Control Authority when deciding upon an electronic voting system for Nevada. They had an extensive background and knowledge for assuring that electronic gaming devices are operating correctly. Following the review, the state went with a touchscreen system from Sequoia Voting Systems, but only after a voter-verified paper trail had been installed on the machines. Sequoia's name for this version of voting machine is AVC Edge® with VeriVote Printer.

Nevada was the only state in 2004 to use electronic voting machines with a paper trail backup for a statewide election. The election was generally smooth and organized with few problems.

However, the statement above is not entirely true. During the 2004 election in which George W. Bush narrowly defeated John Kerry in Nevada, over 51% of the votes in Nevada were counted on 11 year old Sequoias that were not "retrofitted" as promised by Sequoia with printers in time for that election. By the 2006 election, some of those old machines were finally "printer ready" and were at precincts where voters were given a choice to vote on the old machines or the new ones that came with printers. The old machines were involved in previous elections and were impossible to verify the votes on as they only tallied totals of each precinct and there was no way to verify individual votes.

2006 election
Heller faced a tough road to the Republican nomination after the Club for Growth back candidate Sharron Angle in the Republican primary. The bitter primary saw the Club for Growth attack Heller, calling him a liberal and running a TV ad that said, "Dean Heller equals more spending and higher taxes for our families."

Heller won the primary by less than 1% of the vote and Angle refused to concede. Angle sought to have the entire primary invalidated but did not have much of a case.

Heller defeated Democrat Jill Derby 51%-45% to replace Rep. Jim Gibbons, who ran for governor of Nevada.

Money in politics
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Committees and Affiliations

 * House Committee on Ways and Means
 * Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support

Twitter
 Dean Heller posts on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DeanHeller

Latest posts: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/41363507.rss|title=none| max=3| short See all the Members of Congress who Twitter

Resources

 * Dean Heller for Congress, official campaign site.

Local blogs and discussion sites

 * Las Vegas Gleaner
 * Reno Discontent

Articles

 * Rachel Konrad-AP, "'Paper trail' voting system used in Nevada Electronic ballot machines equipped with printers," MSNBC, September 7, 2004.
 * Associated Press, "Nevada's Seamless E-Vote", Wired, September 13, 2004.
 * Marsha Walton, "Nevada improves odds with e-vote: Slot machine experts consulted on voting technology." CNN, October 29, 2004.
 * Jim Drinkard, High-tech voting accessory: Paper", USA Today, August 8, 2005.