Tonight's Town Hall Debate tackles ballot questions

With a lot of pressure on election workers this year, Clerk Treasurer Amy Burgans said the ranked choice voting included in Question 3 will make tallying future votes even more difficult if it passes.

Burgans will be speaking about the voting process at tonight’s Town Hall Debate 6 p.m. at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center.

Moderator James Settelmeyer will review pros and cons for the state questions to be followed by candidates for the county’s two justice of the peace seats around 6:45 p.m.

Douglas County School Board trustee candidates will take the stage after the break.

The evening is hosted by the Business Council of Douglas County, the Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce, Tahoe Chamber, Record Courier, and Brian Kulpa Photography. 

Burgans said that she recognizes that an open primary might be popular, but the states that have approved ranked choice voting have found it unworkable.

“I highly encourage people to read it,” she said. “It’s a two-fold question and rank choice voting is of definite concern across the state.”

She said the issue will have impacts on tallying votes.

According to the explanation included with the sample ballots that arrived in residents’ mailboxes over the past week, the initiative would eliminate state partisan primaries from Legislature.

It would establish an open top-five primary election and a ranked-choice general election.

Proponents point out that Nevada does not allow nonpartisan voters to participate in the primaries.

“That means the 1 million registered voters who are neither Republican or Democrat, many of them military veterans and first responders, are being denied an equal voice in elections their tax dollars pay for,” advocates for the measure said on Monday.

Any candidate who won more than half the vote would be declared the winner. If no candidate won a majority of the vote, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated. Those who picked that candidate as their first would have their vote transferred to their second choice. The process would continue until one candidate received a majority.

The measure passed during the 2022 Election and if it’s approved in November it would be included in the Nevada Constitution.

It affects elections for U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, state controller, attorney general and state legislators, according to the sample ballot.

“This is a Constitutional change and constitutional changes take an act of God to reverse,” Burgans said back in May. “The other states that have passed this are trying to reverse it right now.”

Burgans said she has been getting voter questions about a correction card issued with the sample ballot. She said that a last-minute change at the top of the ballot removing the Green Party occurred after they were printed.

Rather than spend $100,000 to reprint the ballots, she decided to do the card instead.

She said the final ballot is correct.