Your friends and relatives in many other states are going to the polls today to vote in local elections. We asked longtime political journalist Steve Sebelius why Nevdans get to stay home.
🗳️ A lot of places around the country are having elections today. Why isn't Nevada?
Many cities in Nevada formerly held their municipal elections in odd-numbered years. In 2019, however, the Nevada Legislature enacted Assembly Bill 50 with broad, bipartisan support, which consolidated municipal elections held in odd-numbered years with the even-year elections held for federal, state, and some local offices. The bill was signed into law by then-Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat.
🗳️ What are the intended benefits of this arrangement?
The bill was intended to save money by holding municipal elections at the same time as elections for federal and state offices, and to avoid the typically low-interest affairs that municipal elections had become. (Turnout in Clark County averaged about 15 percent between 1999-2019, and never exceeded 27 percent.) The move also helped avoid “election fatigue,” having city council elections come right on the heels of even-year general elections.
🗳️ Who are the winners and losers under the consolidated plan?
The winners include the voters, who are also taxpayers, who now only have to pay for one election every two years. Officials who were elected in 2017 and 2019 are also winners, as they got a year added to their terms during the consolidation. Losers include local candidates, who must now compete with federal and state candidates for campaign donations, television ad time, and voters’ attention while waging their campaigns amidst elections for other, more high-profile offices.
- More Sebelius: He talks about Nevada’s much ballyhooed rise in nonpartisan voter registration. [Hey Las Vegas 📧]
- Want more? He also talks about what will soon become the bane of our existence: political ads. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]
