Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Voting in Nevada
Nonpartisans continue to be the largest share of the Nevada electorate after overtaking Democrats in July for the first time in state history, according to voter registration figures published last week by the secretary of state’s office.
There were 611,889 voters who identified as nonpartisans, or roughly 32% of Nevada’s active registered voters, according to the secretary of state’s report. Approximately 601,000, or 31.6%, identified as Democrats, and 551,00, or 28.9%, of the state’s active voters called themselves Republicans.
By comparison, Democrats in 2020 had a state-best 669,056 active voters, followed by Republicans at 638,169 and nonpartisans with 439,927.
There are many factors for why a voter may switch affiliations or decline to affiliate with a political party, said Dan Lee, a political science professor at UNLV.
“There are more nonpartisans in part because of the adoption of automatic voter registration,” Lee said, noting that nonpartisan is the default designation for those registering but not selecting a party preference. “That’s been one factor that contributed to this increase in unaffiliated, nonpartisan voters.”
Take August, when Democrats lost 936 registered voters — either switching party affiliation or leaving the state — and Republicans dropped 89 voters on the statewide registration rolls. Those registered as nonpartisan, including those who are newly registered, grew by 6,777 voters through August.
But just because there are more so-called nonpartisans than ever, Lee said, it doesn’t necessarily translate to a more moderate electorate.
“The term we use in political science, we like to call them ‘closet partisans,’ ” Lee said. “They’re people who vote a lot like partisans, so people that pretty consistently vote either Democrat or Republican. But they outright don’t identify with one of the major parties.”
Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, CEO of the Nevada-based political strategy firm On Point Campaigns, said she encouraged clients running for office in 2024 to appeal to moderate voters. She said voters have grown tired of partisan bickering and are hungry for substantive policy.
“In every single race that I’m running in the next cycle, nonpartisans out-register Republicans and Democrats, and we have to be very mindful of that,” Mayo-DeRiso said. “You’ve got to talk to them about commonsense, moderate issues. Whether it … be public safety, education, the economy … it has to be that commonsense moderate kind of talk.”
As a rule of thumb, Lee added, most voting populations can be split evenly into thirds: Democrats, Republicans and nonpartisans. But among nonpartisans, roughly two-thirds are those closet partisans, meaning about one-third of nonpartisans are swing voters who can be convinced to vote either way in any given election.
“While we are seeing this increase in nonpartisan voters in terms of voter registration, that doesn’t necessarily mean that things are getting less partisan,” Lee said.
Also contributing to the nonpartisan rise, Lee said, is citizen dissatisfaction with their affiliated political party.
“I wouldn’t expect campaigns to be less partisan in Nevada in the upcoming election, because a big part of winning campaigns is mobilizing your voters and your supporters,” Lee said. “So that, to an extent, is going to kind of push them (voters) out toward the liberal and conservative ends of the spectrum, not necessarily just moderate.”
That puts a value on independent voters, Lee said, pointing to the 2022 midterm election.
In the 2022 midterms, Republican nominee Joe Lombardo unseated Democratic incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak, but Democrats again swept the federal races for Congress. And extremist Republican candidates like Secretary of State hopeful Jim Marchant — an election denier — were defeated by a wide margin.
“For Lombardo, crime was a reasonable thing they could campaign on that won’t turn off independents,” Lee said. “But if you’re pushing things like election fraud, election integrity, that didn’t really resonate very well with moderates, with independent voters.”
Mayo-DeRiso pointed to the midterms’ total turnout statewide of about 54.7%, compared with 77.3% turnout during the 2020 general election. Turnout during a midterm year will almost always be eclipsed by presidential election years, she said, but turnout in 2022 was lower than 2018 levels, when about 62.5% of active voters went to the polls, according to secretary of state data.
From a campaign strategy standpoint, Mayo-DeRiso said it would be important for candidates in 2024 to attract young voters, a demographic that has been difficult historically to activate. But with so many new tools available, between social media and artificial intelligence, engaging those young voters should be easier than ever, she said.
“They’re not watching any live television unless it’s a football game or a sporting event or something like that,” Mayo-DeRiso said, maintaining the importance of continuing to court the “inveterate” bloc of people 65 and older. “(Young voters are) not watching Fox News. They’re not watching the morning news on channels 3, 13, or 8. … They’re getting their news in a very different way.”
Mayo-DeRiso, who has been running campaigns for 25 years, said it could also be possible ghat campaigns have simply grown complacent. It may be time to shake up how campaigns are run, she said.
“It used to be this cookie-cutter type of message,” she said. “I don’t think you can do that any more, especially in Nevada, and especially with the next cycle. I believe you have to microtarget messaging. You have to know why people are voting, and we have to let nonpartisans know that turnout matters.
“If you want change, if you want a better future for your kids, if you want a better Nevada, you have to vote,” Mayo-DeRiso said.
Automatic registration
The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles says it works with the secretary of state’s office, corresponding county clerks and registrars of voters to operate the state’s automatic voter registration system.
The DMV does not register voters or maintain voter rolls, but rather it submits the data it gets from the public to the secretary of state and local clerks.
Nevada voters in 2018 approved a ballot question calling for the automatic registration of eligible citizens at the DMV. It launched in 2020, almost immediately swelling the rolls with nonpartisan voters.
DMV customers are submitted for automatic voter registration if they are legal U.S. citizens, are 18 or older, are completing a transaction related to a Nevada driver’s license or ID card, and do not outwardly decline to be registered to vote.
DMV customers are given a data review sheet during their transaction that contains all information on their driver’s license or ID, in addition to whether that customer is eligible for automatic voter registration. If they’re eligible, they are given a form to choose a political party, register as a nonpartisan or opt out of the automatic registration.
If that form is not completed, the DMV will still submit that customer’s information for automatic voter registration if they are otherwise qualified. The political affiliation will be submitted as “customer left blank.” If you’re an existing voter in Nevada, your party affiliation will not change.
