By Doug Goodman -Founder & Executive Director Nevadans for Election Reform – June 21, 2022
The primary election is over (results will be certified on June 24th) and once again we have partisan races in closed primaries determining the overall winner of the office. SB 499 strikes again.
SB 499 changed the way elections for partisan offices where only one major party fields candidates, no minor party or Non-Partisan candidates running for the position. Prior to this bill, if this condition presented itself the following applies:
- If only two candidates were running both would automatically advance (no primary election) to the general election so all voters could make their choice known.
- If three or more candidates were running the top two finishers in the primary would advance to the general election, again so all voters could cast a ballot.
Under SB 499, a primary is held and the winner of the primary advances to the general election unopposed. Since Nevada conducts closed primaries, only the members of the party of the candidates vote. Since primary election turnout is significantly lower than the general election, this means a small fraction of the party and an even smaller fraction of the district is determining the winner.
Since SB 499 became effective for the 2016 election, 12 state legislative races were determined in the closed primaries. This cycle we add four (4) more. If you add in county partisan races, the total is more than doubled.
| District | Party | % Party Turnout | Winner % of turnout | Winner % of party registration | Winner % of total district registration |
| SD 17 | Republican | 48.75% | 51.64% | 25.17% | 12.3% |
| AD 19 | Republican | 44.75% | 42.10% | 18.84% | 8.0% |
| AD 36 | Republican | 44.79% | 51.92% | 23.26% | 9.46% |
| AD 38 | Republican | 44.55% | 57.09% | 25.43% | 12.01% |
I would think it will be difficult for any of these winners; they will be officially elected in November as long as they each receive at least one (1) vote, to claim they represent their constituents. Perhaps claiming they represent the majority of their party members who voted in the primary is sufficient. (Note in two of the races the winner did not receive the majority)
The state legislature has twice refused to reverse this change, returning to the process that allowed all voters in the district to have their voices heard and vote counted, in 2017 and again in 2019.
In all likelihood there will be a ballot initiative on the general election ballot in November 2022 that will correct this and provide all voters, regardless of party, the choice to vote for any candidate, regardless of political party in the primary and then have a louder voice in the general election by allowing voters to vote for the five candidates for any office in order of their preference for each candidate.