Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 | 2 a.m.
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At a time when Americans in far too many places are being subjected to voter suppression, Clark County shines as a place where voting rights remain powerfully and passionately protected.
For that, Southern Nevadans can thank local and state election officials, starting with Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria and his team.
In recent years, Gloria has led efforts to make registration and voting easier for local residents, including replacing the old precinct model with voting centers that allow eligible voters to cast their ballots at locations across the valley. The staff also has done a remarkable job of facilitating early voting, with a whopping 96 sites available this year to local voters who want to vote before Election Day. The Sun will begin publishing a list of those sites daily beginning Saturday, the start of early voting, and the list also is available at the Clark County Election Department’s website, clarkcountynv.gov/election/pages/default.aspx.
On Election Day, voting can be done at 172 sites.
Gloria and the election staff also have done an exemplary job enabling the right of Nevadans to vote by mail. Ballots are available to residents at the department’s website or by calling the office at 702-455-6552.
And in voter registration, which closes today, the staff has also made the process easy by promoting options for registering online, by mail or in person. Registered voters also can check their records online to ensure they’re up to date.
Contrast all of that with the abhorrent situation in Georgia, where voter registrations of 53,000 Georgians were frozen recently because information on their applications didn’t exactly match information in Social Security and motor vehicle records. And by exactly, we mean just that — even a misplaced hyphen, dot or dash during data entry can trigger a hold, which requires voters to produce documentation that precisely matches computer records in order to cast ballots.
Make no mistake: This is the same kind of crooked tactic that Jim Crow-era officials used to keep blacks and other minorities from voting.
Then there’s Kansas, where the Republican candidate for governor, Kris Kobach, has a history of voter suppression efforts that includes heading President Donald Trump’s failed task force on voter fraud and instigating a set of severely restrictive voting laws as Kansas secretary of state. In overturning those laws in June, a federal judge not only rejected Kobach’s claims of widespread voting by noncitizens but said the laws blocked tens of thousands of eligible voters from registering — meaning Kobach was the one harming the integrity of the state’s elections, not noncitizens.
So thank heaven for Gloria and his staff. They’re a perfect example of the exceptional people in government who are determined to make voters’ lives easier.
The team has assembled a splendidly organized system that makes registering and voting a snap for qualified voters. And when hiccups inevitably occur, as they did when human error resulted in some ballots being counted twice during the primary election this year, Gloria has taken ownership of them and worked to ensure they don’t happen again.
In short, Gloria and his staff recognize voting for what it is — one of the most sacred elements of a democracy.
People like to complain about the “bureaucracy,” but the truth is that most people in government are determined civil servants trying to make our communities better places. We hold up our election officials as an example of the best of the best.
Truly, no one in Southern Nevada can claim they were too busy to vote, because Clark County has made voting as convenient as stopping to pick up a soda.
Along those same lines, here’s a thank-you to the operators of the many grocery stores, malls and other locations throughout town that have given up space for polling places during early voting. All of Clark County should see those polling places and feel pride: From the government to the private sector, we believe in voting.
So now that election officials and others have done their part by rolling out the red carpet to voters, it’s time for the electorate to do ours.
Please, Las Vegas, get out and vote!
