‘I don’t feel safe’: Election worker says she was attacked at Las Vegas bus stop

Police and Clark County officials are investigating after an election worker said a man attacked her at a bus stop, an incident that she thinks was motivated by her role in the election process.

It was around 7 p.m. Oct. 26. Brandi Lapriore was waiting for a southbound bus at Eastern Avenue and Bonanza Road, wearing an orange Clark County Election Department shirt that said, “Don’t lose your voice. Vote!”, she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

That’s when she said a man approached. At first, he asked if anyone knew when the bus would come. Lapriore said she checked for him.

Then, she said, he started talking about Joe Rogan’s podcast with former President Donald Trump.

Lapriore replied that she hadn’t seen it.

“‘I don’t even talk politics at work,’” she said she told him. “‘I’m not allowed to.’”

The man continued to talk about Trump, she said, got closer to where she was sitting and kept raising his voice.

“I get up and I’m like, ‘You need to just go somewhere or leave me alone or do something,’” she said.

She said the man stepped toward her, chest bumped her and punched her in the face. He also knocked her to the ground, she said, and stepped on her knee.

Lapriore said she called 911 after she was attacked and an ambulance took her to University Medical Center, where she learned that, despite her bloody face, she hadn’t broken anything.

While in the ambulance talking to officers, she heard that the man also called 911 and said she attacked him first, which she denies, she said.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed officers responded to Eastern and Bonanza at 6:54 p.m. “regarding an assault/battery.”

Police said that the investigation is ongoing and did not respond to a question about whether a suspect had been arrested.

“We can confirm that an incident did occur regarding a temporary election worker at a bus stop,” said Clark County spokesperson Stephanie Wheatley. “We are still looking into this isolated incident.”

Lapriore is a ballot inspection department employee, she said, working through a temporary worker service. She said she looks for problems like stickiness or a tear in a ballot that could prevent it from being counted.

She thinks her shirt sparked the conversation that led to her attack.

“I don’t consider all Republicans to be like that guy,” she added. “But I do consider Trump supporters to be like that guy, if you know what I mean. I feel that after January 6th, our country took a turn for the worse, if you want to know the truth. And that we would even be considering putting somebody in office who would incite something like that and continue to incite people is a sad thing.”

She said she’d be working at the election department again on Election Day. When she leaves, she said she’d carry pepper spray, which she got after the attack.

“I don’t want to leave Vegas. I love Vegas,” she said. “But for the first time in 20 years, I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X. Review-Journal staff writer Katie Futterman contributed to this report.