First-time voters cast ballots

Among the almost 700 people to vote in person at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center on Saturday were first-time voters, UNR students and Douglas High graduates Antonio Fuentes and Sabrina Settelmeyer.

Fuentes said he was really excited about his first time voting.

“My family doesn’t do anything with politics,” he said. “They don’t really care about it. They’re just like, ‘It happens around us and we really don’t participate that much in it.’”

When the two got into the room to vote, the clerk’s announced their first-time status.

While Fuentes said he was the first person in his family to vote, Settelmeyer couldn’t make that claim, with scions of the Carson Valley ranching family holding public office over the last 90 years since Arthur Settelmeyer was elected to the Douglas County commission in 1934.

Settelmeyer’s father, James, just term-limited out as a member of the Nevada State Senate in 2022.

“A reason I really wanted to vote is because my family has always been very politically active,” Sabrina said. “So, I’d like to start my own streak towards going there.”

She said she didn’t vote in the primary because she wasn’t certain who to cast her ballot for, but that won’t be a problem for this election.

“I have a lot more political opinions in mind, so I know who I’m going to vote for,” she said.

Settelmeyer is majoring in psychological science and minoring in statistics and ceramics. Her ceramics piece “Lidded Jars,” and her art portfolio won Scholastic Art Awards gold keys when she was a Douglas High senior in 2023.

Fuentes is majoring in chemistry with a minor in microbiology and Chinese language.

Voters lined up across the front of the Douglas County Community & Senior Center at 10 a.m. Saturday for the opening of in-person voting.

Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans said voting was brisk during the four hours polls were open on Saturday with 679 voters and around 1,000 mailed ballots dropped off. As of Wednesday morning, 1,614 have voted.

Douglas County voters have been dropping off or mailing ballots since they arrived early last week.

The names of nearly two dozen voters whose mailed ballots had a signature issue appeared on the website.

The Clerk’s Office maintains a running tally of those and posts them as they become available.