Advocates want hybrid election, including voting by mail

Advocacy groups throughout Nevada plan to call on the state to reverse course on its current election plan, saying a traditional in-person format during the coronavirus pandemic may further discourage voters of color, young people and those with disabilities from participating.

“I understand the budget issues, but this election determines the livelihood of so many underserved communities,” said Ashley Garcia, deputy political director of Make the Road Action Nevada. “It’s worth getting right.”

Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske last week reiterated her plans to move back to a standard election format for the Nov. 3 general election after the state transitioned to an all-mail primary for the first time in its history.

She said she believes a traditional election can be run safely, and her budget is short the $4 million to $5 million it would need to repeat the all-mail process in November.

On Monday, Gov. Steve Sisolak said a special session of the Legislature that will address the election and other issues is imminent — perhaps starting as soon as Thursday.

Access concerns

State Democrats, Clark County and various advocacy groups have more or less coalesced around the idea of a hybrid election, in which all traditional polling places will open, but all active registered voters will also automatically receive an absentee ballot in the mail.

Garcia said she hopes the Legislature and state take into account the COVID-19 virus’ disproportionate effect on Latino communities when devising a final plan. She pushed for the hybrid approach but stressed that whatever election plan is agreed upon must be effectively communicated to voters in Spanish.

Win Justice Nevada, a coalition including Color of Change PAC, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action, Planned Parenthood Votes and the Service Employees International Union Local 1107, released a statement Monday accusing Cegavske of “partisanship” in her decision.

The coalition claims Cegavske — a former state lawmaker and the only Republican currently in elected statewide office — is attempting to help Republicans suppress the vote in an effort to improve President Donald Trump’s chances of winning the state.

In order to combat this, the Legislature and Sisolak must codify instructions to elections officials on the expansion of vote-by-mail, the statement said.

“The pandemic and its impact on our communities has not abated, and we need a plan to ensure Nevadans can safely vote in November; no one should have to choose between exercising their right to vote and their health,” Win Justice Nevada state director Gabriel di Chiara said in the statement.

Cegavske’s office did not respond to a request for a response.

Making votes count

Kerry Durmick recently moved to Nevada to run the state arm of All Voting is Local, an initiative run by The Leadership Conference Education Fund along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Constitution Society, the Campaign Legal Center and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Durmick’s immediate plan is to ask Cegavske for the aforementioned hybrid election plan, but her group is also pushing for the “removal of discriminatory barriers” for young people, low-income voters, people of color and those who are disabled within the vote-by-mail system.

She noted that some 10,000 ballots in Nevada were rejected during the primary due to signature mismatches, missed deadlines or other reasons.

Data from other statesshowed that voters of color and young voters were far more likely to have their ballots rejected during the 2018 election.

It is unknown if the same issue was present in Nevada, as the state does not track racial demographics for each ballot. But Durmick said the state must take further steps to better educate the public on voting by mail.

All Voting is Local is also calling for Nevada and other states to end the practice of matching voter signatures on each ballot, which Durmick said gives elections staff a lot of discretion over ballots. Instead, the group suggests voters use the last four digits of their Social Security number to verify their identities.

Ballots submitted with mismatched signatures are not counted until elections officials can verify the voter’s identity.

Party lines

State and national Republicans remain steadfastly opposed to the expansion of vote by mail.

In its own statement released Monday, Trump’s campaign referenced slow result tabulation in New York and California’s rejection of 100,000 absentee ballots as the latest reasons to reject calls for nationwide voting by mail. Nevada campaign spokesman Keith Schipper said Democrats’ “irresponsible experiment would eliminate safeguards, invite fraud and weaken the integrity of our elections.”

Nevada has remained a national battleground for both parties’ battle over the expansion of vote by mail.

The Democrats sued Cegavske and the state over the original primary election plan, which called for opening one voting center in each county. They pushed for more in-person voting centers, the relaxation of signature requirements and for ballots to go out to all voters, not just active voters with verified addresses.

Arguments for mailing ballots to inactive voters appear to have died since the primary, as Clark County’s latest plan acknowledges that nearly all were returned as undelivered mail.

The Republicans have complained of unsubstantiated fraud concerns, which culminated in a March tweet from Trump threatening Nevada’s federal election funding should ballots be sent to inactive voters.

Nevada’s courts have already weighed in on the matter, twice rejecting a conservative group’s attempt to block the all-mail primary due to fraud concerns.

The battle now appears poised to spill into the Legislature with the upcoming special session, though it’s unclear exactly what changes, if any, to the election format are on the table for lawmakers.

Attempts to reach the Democratic caucuses for both the Assembly and Senate, where Democrats hold huge majorities, were not successful Tuesday.

Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.