Meet the Faces of Democracy: Nedra Cooper

Editor’s note: More than 10,000 officials across the country run U.S. elections. This interview is part of a series highlighting the election heroes who are the faces of democracy.

Nedra Cooper, who is not affiliated with any political party, has a longstanding commitment to public service.

A resident of Las Vegas since 1971, Cooper began working as a poll worker in 1985. For the past two decades, she has also trained poll workers for the elections department in Clark County, Nevada. With over 2.4 million residents, Clark County is the most populous in the state and the 11th most populous in the nation. Clark County is also home to about 70% of all registered voters in Nevada.

In her leisure time, Cooper can be found sewing, horseback riding — an activity she has enjoyed since 1996 — and enjoying criminal fiction and poetry, with a particular fondness for the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

In addition to her work in elections, Cooper has been an active community activist since her youth. She is a member of numerous civil organizations, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, which she helped found in 1981 with a focus on education. In fact, Cooper was pivotal in securing a building for after-school tutoring managed by its members. In 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, she organized a reenactment, in Nevada, of the Selma March for voting rights.

Cooper’s dedication to community service has been recognized with a nomination for the President’s Volunteer Service Award, which was acknowledged with a letter from President Bill Clinton, and she has received congressional recognition for her volunteer work on the disaster action team with the Red Cross.

Since 2022, she has been part of Issue One’s Faces of Democracy campaign advocating for protections for election workers and for regular, predictable, and sufficient federal funding of elections.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Issue One: How did you end up working in elections?

Nedra Cooper: I’ve always been interested in how elections are run. You hear a lot of different philosophies about what goes on in an election department. When I got out of high school, I signed up to be a voter registrar in 1971. I was amazed by how that went down. Later, I worked for the county, and they would have county workers go work the election. I had the opportunity to be a part of the election process for as many years as I was willing to do it. When I retired, the election department reached out to me and asked me if I’d be interested in becoming a part of their team, and I jumped at that opportunity.

Issue One: What would you say to someone who is considering becoming a poll worker this year. Do you have an elevator pitch as to why somebody should work as a poll worker?

Nedra Cooper: You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. I just think it’s really important to get involved. I think each of us owe it to give something back to the community, and one of the ways that we can give back is by working the polls and understanding that every vote counts.

Issue One: What part of the election administration story in your area do you think isn’t told enough or isn’t widely understood enough?

Nedra Cooper: The safety of the election is really, really important. People don’t understand that it’s everyday people — their neighbors, their mothers, their fathers, their uncles, their sisters, their brothers — working the polls. It’s not some select group that was found somewhere on a deserted island. It is your neighbor who might be working the polls, who may be the one getting threatened. In recent years, we’ve lost a lot of really good workers because of threats. It’s heartbreaking.

Issue One: You’ve worked for the Clark County Elections Department for more than 16 years. What types of changes have you seen in how elections are run during this time?

Nedra Cooper: One major change is the involvement of more technology in running elections. I love the fact that we are trying to upgrade systems to make sure that we’ve got the best systems that we can afford so that we can maintain the integrity of elections.

We’ve come a long way from how we used to do elections. The first time that I ever worked an  election was in the 1970s, and now, with technology, we are able to process voters more professionally and expeditiously, so folks are not standing in line for hours.

Issue One: Many people are surprised to learn that the federal government doesn’t routinely fund the costs of running elections. Why do you think the federal government should routinely fund election administration costs?

Nedra Cooper: The biggest reason is because they delegate a lot of election components to the states. If you had federal dollars, I think that would help in terms of running elections with standardized processes. It can be difficult when voters move and recognize that elections are run differently between states. Most of us think that wherever we go, the voting process is going to be the same, kind of like how the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is basically the same no matter where you go.

Issue One: Twice over the past two years, you’ve come to Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers and policymakers as a part of a bipartisan advocacy push organized by Issue One. What were your key takeaways from those conversations and meetings?

Nedra Cooper: One of my biggest takeaways was about funding, making sure that all election departments have the funds that they need to run effective elections. It’s interesting to find out that in a lot of states, elections are among the lowest funding priorities.

Issue One: In recent years, election-related misconceptions, conspiracy theories, and lies have proliferated. How has this impacted your work?

Nedra Cooper: We have a lot of people who come to vote with misinformation, and that’s how they carry themselves when they come to the vote centers, as if the election department is the one that has perpetrated a crime, or disenfranchisement, and not realizing that is actually other sources that are providing them with inaccurate information.

Issue One: Given all these challenges, what inspires you to stay in this line of work?

Nedra Cooper: I just believe in democracy. I believe in voting. I believe in the right to vote, and I believe that it’s my job, my duty, to help make sure that those who want to vote and are eligible to vote will get an opportunity to vote. That’s what keeps me going.

Issue One: Outside of being passionate about elections, what are your hobbies, or what is a fun fact that most people might not know about you?

Nedra Cooper: I ride horses and I sew. I’m a grandmother and I have grandkids and great grandkids that I get to spend time with, I really enjoy that. And my favorite time of year is Christmas. I just love Christmas.

Issue One: What is your favorite book or movie?

Nedra Cooper: Oh, that’s hard! I have such an eclectic book collection! I love criminal fiction, autobiographies, and poetry. One of my favorite poets is Edgar Allan Poe.

Issue One: Which historical figure would you have most liked to have had an opportunity to meet and why?

Nedra Cooper: Harriet Tubman, because it took courage that I can’t even begin to understand to be a part of the Underground Railroad and bring as many people to freedom as she did.

Issue One: It’s my understanding that in 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic, you organized and coordinated a reenactment of the Selma March for voting rights in Nevada. What motivated you to do this?

Nedra Cooper: It was all about voting. I think sometimes people forget the shoulders that we stand on, especially minority groups. We just barely got the chance to vote, starting in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act, and even then, there were still states that made it difficult for Black voters to vote. There are generations who feel like there is no racism or discrimination because they feel like they’ve never experienced it. And so I think it is important to remember our ancestors. I am not able to work at the election department because of open arms; I am here because of the shoulders that I stood on. The NAACP in Las Vegas had to blaze a trail for all of the other civic leaders in our Black community to make it so that the rest of us could do these things.

Note: This piece was cross-published with The Fulcrum.