Judge issues emergency order limiting a bullhorn-wielding protester at the Desert Breeze polling site after ACLU complaints

What happened

A judge on Friday issued an emergency temporary restraining order aimed at voter intimidation outside the early voting site at Desert Breeze Community Center, on Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive, KTNV Channel 13 reported. The ACLU of Nevada asked for the order late Thursday after its observers filmed a woman with a bullhorn confronting voters. The court granted it by Friday morning.

The woman, whom the ACLU calls "Bullhorn Becky," was recorded shouting insults at voters starting Oct. 17, the first day of early voting, according to KTNV. ACLU leaders told the station that police and election officials did little to stop her, which is why they went to court.

What the court ordered

A buffer around the only pathway

Part of the order requires Clark County to bar electioneering within 100 feet of what the court described as the "narrow, single pathway required to access the voting area at Desert Breeze Community Center." KTNV reported there is only one narrow path from the parking lot to the polling place.

Limits on one person

The order also targets the woman directly. According to KTNV, she may not harass or intimidate voters at Desert Breeze, follow them while recording, or talk to them as they enter or leave the polling place. She is also barred from physical assault or threats of harm at any time during the 2026 election.

What voters and observers described

A voter's account

Voter Charles Raymond Karel told KTNV that the woman shouted "Vote no on 6!" in his ear as he walked in with his service dog, Ember. He said that after he told her he supports a woman's right to choose, she directed a slur and a crude remark at him over the bullhorn. Question 6 asks voters whether to add a right to abortion to the Nevada Constitution until fetal viability, or when needed to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.

Karel said poll workers told him they could not act if she stayed 100 feet away. He said he responded that because the pathway is the only way in, she was not really that far from voters. KTNV reported that the confrontation escalated and the bullhorn hit Karel in the mouth.

The ACLU's view

ACLU Nevada executive director Athar Haseebullah, who witnessed the incidents, told KTNV that "voter intimidation and battery are not protected First Amendment activities." He said state and federal law make that clear. He also said people followed voters into the voting area while recording them and shouting obscenities, and that some voters turned around and left the site.

Haseebullah said the Clark County Registrar of Voters had prioritized safety at the site and visited it herself. He said he saw the woman try to accost the registrar that Saturday. Other videos shared with KTNV show the woman yelling at voters to "stop murdering babies."

Police and the response so far

Karel and the ACLU both contacted police. They say police know the woman's real name and have an open case, KTNV reported. Karel is weighing whether to press assault charges. Both said nothing was done to deter her for the rest of that day or in the days that followed.

"It's about every voter and their safety coming here to Desert Breeze," Karel told KTNV. Let Nevadans Vote, which KTNV described as a nonpartisan coalition of community organizations, also released a statement on the order. For more on turnout as early voting winds down, see our look at Nevada's final day of early voting. Find more coverage in our elections section.

What to watch next

• Whether Karel decides to press assault charges in the open police case, according to KTNV.
• How Clark County carries out the court's requirement to bar electioneering within 100 feet of the single pathway at Desert Breeze Community Center.
• The order's ban on physical assault or threats of harm by the woman applies at any time during the 2026 election.