Primary vs. caucus debate lands in mailboxes

Over the next few days, 41,862 active Douglas County voters will be receiving information in the mail on 2024 elections, all three of them.

But the question that may occur to the Republican half of the Douglas electorate on reviewing information for the Presidential Preference Primary in February is “Where are Trump and DeSantis?”

Neither candidate will appear in the Presidential Preference Primary held in February, but both are participating in Nevada’s Republican caucuses.

Republican Party officials are concerned that Nevada’s status as first to weigh in on the 2024 race increases the possibility for the vote to be divided between the primary and the caucus.

Gardnerville resident and Nevada Republican Party National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid responded to Genoa resident Jim Hartman’s Oct. 27 column in the Nevada Appeal, which includes the Saturday edition of The Record-Courier.

DeGraffenried said there isn’t anything preventing registered Republicans from participating in both contests.

“In general, I expect registered Republicans will look at the candidates who are registered for each election and vote in the election that has their favored candidate on the ballot,” he said. “It has occurred to me, however, that it’s possible that a (Nikki) Haley … supporter might vote in the primary because that’s where their candidate is, and then vote at the caucus for their second favorite candidate, knowing that the caucus candidates are competing for delegates, which is how the nominee is eventually chosen.”

Former President Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis are joined by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Ryan Binkley on the Feb. 8, 2024, caucus.

There are seven names on the Republican presidential primary ballot, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott, who have both dropped out of the race as of Monday.

Haley, who participated in last week’s debate, is on the primary ballot along with Texan John Castro, Reno resident Heath Fulkerson, Hirsh Singh and Donald Kjornes.

There are 13 for dinner on the Democratic side of the ballot, topped by President Biden.

Early voting in the presidential primary will last a week between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, 2024, and Election Day is Feb. 6, 2024.

Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans said that because she’s required to mail out information to registered Republicans and Democrats, she decided to do an information packet that covers all three of the elections.

“There’s a lot of information in there,” she said.

Nonpartisan voters, who make up a quarter of the Douglas electorate, won’t get to participate in the primary or caucus unless they change their affiliation to a major party.

As of Nov. 1, Douglas County is home to 20,997 Republicans and 7,903 Democrats. There are 10,151 nonpartisan voters in the county.

Independent Americans make up the largest minor party with 1,909 voters. There are 453 Libertarians, 26 members of the Green Party and 11 Natural Law voters. There are 412 voters listed as other on the Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer’s Web site.

Statewide, there are 631,129 active nonpartisan voters with 602,549 Democrats and 553,278 Republicans.