North Las Vegas ponders change to even-numbered year election cycle

Voters haven’t had a chance yet to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but North Las Vegas city officials are already eyeing the 2020 election.

Candidates vying for a City Council seat could share a ballot with the next round of presidential contenders, under a plan that would shift the current odd-year, springtime election schedule to align with national and statewide races.

Syncing up the elections on even-numbered years could save money while drumming up local voter turnout, officials said.

“We’re going to do some more looking into this,” Mayor John Lee said during a discussion earlier this week about moving the city’s elections.

A decision to move municipal elections could come before the end of the year.

If that happens, candidates running for mayor and council seats in Wards 1 and 3 during the 2017 election cycle would not serve a full four-year term through June 2021. Instead, those terms would end seven months early, so that the next election could be held in November 2020.

Wards 2 and 4 aren’t up for election until 2019, but the winners of those seats would also see their terms shortened by seven months to align with the November 2022 election, sharing the ballot with midterm Congressional races.

Currently, North Las Vegas pays about $325,000 for Clark County to run primary elections in April and general elections in June of odd-numbered years, City Clerk Catherine Raynor said. The county would not charge the city if North Las Vegas moved its municipal election to even-numbered years, she said.

City officials are looking at other options to reduce expenses, but it was unclear how much it would cost if North Las Vegas switched to mail-in ballots or opted to purchase a set of voting machines and ran its elections.

North Las Vegas isn’t alone in contemplating whether to switch election years. Mesquite has already changed to even-year elections, while similar moves are under consideration in Las Vegas and Henderson.

Councilwoman Anita Wood raised concerns about voters who might lose interest in completing the ballot to the end, where City Council races would be listed. Wood also said she disliked the idea of seeing campaign mailers and signs going unnoticed among a flood of information from state and federal races.

“The one benefit that I do see is the increased number of voters, and I’m trying to figure out how we capture that positive without going to all these negatives,” Wood said.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss the matter further during a meeting set for 6 p.m. Nov. 16 at City Hall.

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.