Lawmakers OK mailin ballots; Trump slams move
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada state lawmakers passed a bill Sunday that would add the state to a growing list of U.S. states that will mail active voters ballots ahead of the November election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat. If he signs it as expected, Nevada will join seven states that plan on automatically sending voters mail ballots, including California and Vermont, which moved earlier this summer to adopt automatic mail ballot policies.
President Trump called the bill’s passage “an illegal late night coup“in a tweet Monday morning. He accused Sisolak of exploiting COVID19 to ensure votes in Nevada would favor Democrats.
“Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of MailIn Votes without preparation … See you in court!”
Trump has claimed the mail ballots would lead to fraud and compromise the integrity of the election. The consensus among experts is that all forms of voter fraud are rare.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske told lawmakers Friday that she wasn’t aware of any fraud in the June primary, when Nevada mailed all active voters absentee ballots and opened only a limited number of polling places to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Limited polling places in Reno and Las Vegas resulted in lines of up to eight hours.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has issued election guidance to provide a wide variety of voting options and limit crowds at polling places.
In the June primary, all Nevada counties had one polling place except for Clark County, which had three in the Las Vegas area. The bill requires at least 140 polling places throughout the state in November, including 100 in Clark County, which had 179 in the November 2018 election.
Christine Saunders of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada said the long waits in the June primary demonstrated why Nevada needs both mail and inperson voting opportunities.
“No one should have to choose between their health and voting. No one should have to choose between staying in line to vote and making it to their job on time,” she said.
In states such as Colorado and Oregon, which have mailed all voters ballots for years, the procedure is cheaper than holding an inperson election.
But Cegavske said the equipment, education, printing and postage would cost the Nevada secretary of state’s office an additional $3 million, not including costs to counties, which distribute and tabulate ballots.
Cegavske, the state’s top election official and only Republican to hold statewide office, opposed the revised procedures. She blasted the Democraticcontrolled Legislature for excluding her from discussions.