By Doug Goodman -Founder & Executive Director Nevadans for Election Reform
On January 1, 2020, three very important changes to voting took effect in Nevada; automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, and the ability for voters to request an absentee ballot for all elections.
The result of an initiative petition in 2016, automatic voter registration (AVR) was passed by the legislature in 2017. However, a veto by Governor Sandoval sent the question to the voters in 2018. The initiative requires the Secretary of State and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to establish a process where a person is either registered to vote or their voter registration information updated when they conduct a transaction at the DMV unless they opt out in writing. Voters approved the process, 60 percent to 40 percent requiring the legislature to pass any necessary legislation to implement the measure. The resulting sections of AB 345 should be taken as a “lesson learned” of the need for initiatives to be specific, not allowing for any legislative tinkering before the statutory three-year prohibition.
I am certain voters made a valid assumption when they both signed the initiative petition and voted that “automatic” meant that when they finished their transaction with the DMV clerk, nothing else was required. Unless they opted out, they were either registered to vote or their information was updated. The language of AB 345 proved this assumption wrong. Based on the implementing legislation, the process is not automatic. Rather than the process being finished with the DMV representative performing the transaction, the voter is given a form that has two conflicting purposes. First, the form will serve as the legal opt out form. Secondly, the form will serve as the mechanism for the voter to select a political party (failure to select a political party will result in the voter being registered as Non-Partisan). Both sections require a signature. The voter is then required to deposit the form in a drop box located in a different location of the DMV office. Confusing? Yes. Creating the possibility that a voter will opt out accidently? Yes. Too time-consuming resulting in voters not completing the process? Yes.
With the additional steps, AVR has simply become an opt-out versus the old opt-in process. “Automatic”? Not really. An improvement? Maybe.
AB 345 also provides that voters can register or update their current voter registration at the polls either during early voting or on election day and then cast their ballots on the same day (Same-day Voter Registration – SDR). In order to ensure only those eligible to vote are registered, voters will be given provisional ballots. If, after election day, it is determined the voter is eligible to vote, their ballot is counted. Same-day registration has the potential to:
- Increase voter turnout as those who, for whatever reason, failed to register or update their registration by the deadline, can do so
- Open Nevada’s closed partisan primary elections. Voters will be able to change political party affiliation and then vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary. An unintended consequence could be an increase in strategic voting, where a voter votes for the worst candidate in the opposing party in hopes their preferred candidate will win in the general election
As positive as SDR is, implementation could have been better. Nevada has a bottom-up registration process. Each county maintains their own database with information then transmitted to the secretary of state. This is the reason for the need of provisional ballots. To correct this, the secretary of state’s office proposed to create a top-down process, having the process managed by the secretary of state with the information then sent down to the counties. This would have required implementation to be 2022 but would have removed the need for provisional ballots. Bill sponsors preferred political expediency rather than doing it right.
Another provision of AB 345 with the potential to boost voter participation is the ability for any voter to request they be provided an absentee mail ballot for all elections rather than having to request such a ballot each time. Along with changes to when mail ballots are sent to voters (voters must receive them sooner) and allowing ballots to be counted if they are post marked by election day and received by the county clerk / registrar of voters no later than seven days following the election (versus received by close of polls on election day), this change should have a very positive impact on voter participation.
Regardless of the comments above, AVR, SDR, and permanent absentee / mail ballots are positive changes to voting in Nevada that have the potential to increase voter participation. What is most important is to get the word out so voters know about these changes that will make it easier for them to exercise their right to have voice in who represents them at all levels of government.