By Doug Goodman -Founder & Executive Director Nevadans for Election Reform – January 27, 2023
As we head in to the 2023 Nevada legislative session, I wanted to put out a few random thoughts.
November saw the first passage of Question 3, an amendment to the Nevada constitution that, if passed by the voters a second time in 2024, will replace our current closed primary system with a top-five nonpartisan open primary and ranked choice voting in the general election. Nevada voters are ready to take control of their elections again as evidenced by 53 percent of voters voting “yes”. Look for the campaign to focus on clarifying just how simple and easy the proposed Final Five Voting process is and how the process benefits all Nevadans.
What about the election just completed.
Just under 55 percent of active registered voters cast ballots. This is about average for mid-term elections, but disappointing given mail ballots were sent to all active voters. Since Nevada still maintains in-person voting, the question of cost benefit has to asked. Assembly Bill 321 (AB 321) approved by the legislature last session making the temporary system of mailing ballots to all active voters put in place for the 2020 election due to COVID did not include any money for voter education. The result was voter confusion as shown by the number of ballots that were either returned, rejected, or in need of correction (curing). It is important to note that prior to 2020, Nevada had no excuse absentee voting, anyone could request a mail ballot. In 2019 a major change that allowed a voter to be placed on a permanent list to receive a mail ballot for all elections instead of having to submit a new request for each election was enacted.
Mailing ballots to all voters has become a hot-button issue whether deservedly so or not. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) rated Nevada 13th following the 2020 election for election administration, meaning we are doing things right.
Perhaps going back to the pre-AB 321 process and using the money required to mail ballots to all, some $14 million, to address some of the valid issues; voter roll maintenance and voter education is worth considering.
The level of emotion connected with all mail ballots also inspired some counties to propose going back to hand-marked paper ballots and manual counting of the votes. This is allowed under current election statute (NRS293B.050). However, the legislature has ordered the secretary of state to change the voter registration and voter roll maintenance process to one controlled by the secretary of state instead of the individual counties (top-down instead of bottom-up) Instead of each county reporting to the secretary of state, the secretary of state would provide the data to the counties. Given this change, the state cannot risk having 17 different voting and tabulation processes. To keep the process standardized and therefor more efficient and accurate, something I believe is supported by both Democratic and Republican voters alike, the law allowing counties to use different methods needs to be changed so all counties use the same voting and tabulation methods.
Another hot-button issue is requiring voters to show valid identification to vote. Is this a solution looking for a problem? Yes. Does the issue impact the legislature from solving other, more important issues? Yes. Is there a fix that could remove this issue and its effect on our political environment? Yes.
Polls suggest that most voters, whether a proponent of voter ID requirements or not, would not object to showing an ID to vote. The proposals being presented this session will include a wide variety of acceptable identification documents all centered around the documents required to be presented to register to vote. For those lacking any of the numerous acceptable identification county clerks or registrar of voters would provide a voting identification free of charge.
Because of the partisan emotion surrounding the issues of mail ballots and voter ID, it is unlikely bills presenting potential solutions will advance. Food for thought, shouldn’t we try to remove obstacles to progress rather than strengthening walls? What would happen if pragmatism won out over partisanship?
During this last election cycle, all election administration offices saw key people and staff leave. Going into 2023, both the Clark and Washoe county registrar of voters is new. The secretary of state and county election offices are trying to hire new staff and have them trained in time for the February 2024 presidential preference primary; there will be three elections in 2024. Educating voters to this fact will play a major role impacting turnout for the state primary in June. Hopefully the required funds will be approved by the legislature.
Random thoughts.