Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump arrives to watch UFC 296 at T-Mobile Arena Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023, in Las Vegas.
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Former President Donald Trump is not on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Nevada that will be arriving this week to voters.
The reason: Trump’s hand-picked state GOP officials dictated caucus rules that prevent Trump from appearing on the ballot or participating in the primary.
State Republican Party officials forced Trump and other candidates to pass on participating in the Feb. 6 primary by creating rules that required all candidates to participate in either the primary or the caucuses but not both. The state GOP officials further decided that only the caucus results would be used to determine Nevada’s delegates to the Republican National Convention, where the party’s presidential nominee will officially be selected.
Instead of the primary, Trump will be part of the GOP-run “First in the West” caucuses, where the Nevada Republican Party and local party chapters statewide are maintaining that the “only serious candidates” are taking part in the caucuses.
But critics point out that former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who placed in the top-three of this week’s Iowa caucuses, is a legitimate threat to Trump and polling closer to him in next week’s New Hampshire primary.
Haley, though, is only on the Nevada primary ballot, opting for the public-run nominating process and not the private one guided by GOP rules that, in turn, block her from participating in the caucuses.
Election officials statewide are preparing for the Trump-induced chaos.
The Clark County Election Department told the Sun that it would be giving poll workers a canned response to inform voters questioning why Trump, or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, aren’t options on the primary ballot. Both will be part of the caucuses.
The response reads:
“The only candidates on Nevada’s presidential preference primary ballot are those who filed with the Nevada secretary of state’s office to run for president in this election. If a candidate did not file with the Nevada secretary of state’s office to run in this election, then that candidate’s name cannot appear on the ballot. Also, if a candidate on the ballot did not formally withdraw from the race before the withdrawal deadline (Oct. 25, 2023), their name remains on the ballot. These are requirements under Nevada law, and we are required to follow the law. (NRS 298.600-720)”
The chance for confusion is enhanced because some states are still determining if Trump can appear on their primary ballots.
The Supreme Court in Colorado and Maine’s secretary of state are both planning to remove Trump from the general election ballot, pending rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court on the matter. Both states found that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol disqualify him from holding office as defined by the 14th Amendment. Section 3 of the post Civil War amendment prohibits someone who previously took an oath of office to support the Constitution from holding public office if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.
The situation in Nevada is different: Republican Party leaders effectively kept Trump off the primary ballot by their rules.
Sample primary ballots have already been sent to voters in Clark County, according to Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo’s office. Early voting is Jan. 27 to Feb. 2.
Mail-in ballots were scheduled to begin hitting mailboxes Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar’s office. To be counted, they must be postmarked by Feb. 6, Election Day.
Mail-in primary ballots were sent to 552,994 active registered Republicans. For them, Haley will appear as the most recognizable candidate still seeking the nomination.
The ballot also lists former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, both of whom have dropped out but did not suspend their campaigns in time before the ballot was finalized.
“I got my sample ballot, Trump is not on it! How does that happen?” Facebook user Jewel Elizabeth Mandell Rush commented on a post Monday from the Nevada GOP. “You want us to support the Nevada Republican Party and you want donations, and this is what you give us! Why are the taxpayers paying for a presidential preferential primary? We have never had this before and it is a huge waste of tax dollars.”
A spokeswoman for Aguilar said the secretary of state’s office had received several calls and emails about the names not on the ballot. The spokeswoman didn’t elaborate about a specific number of calls and emails.
Neither the Nevada GOP nor the Clark County Republican Party responded to interview inquiries. Others, meanwhile, are blaming party leadership for the confusion.
On a separate Nevada GOP post, published Sunday, user Linda Shelton commented: “It’s amazing that our own GOP has denied Republicans their vote by using a caucus for the Nevada delegates and making the primary WE VOTED TO HOLD in 2021 pretty much useless … I’ve been a Republican since I was 18 and will be changing my party because this one no longer has the values I joined it for.”
Nevada Republican Party officials have said they preferred running their own nominating caucuses because officials can require voter identification, use paper ballots, tabulate results the night of the caucuses and not use mail-in ballots or deal with same-day voter registration.
Registered Republican voters can participate in both the state-hosted primary and party-hosted caucuses, but they must show a government-issued ID card at the caucuses. Same-day voter registration is permitted for the primary election; the registration deadline for the caucuses was Jan. 9.
President Joe Biden heads the list of candidates on the ballot for Nevada’s Democratic presidential preference primary, which also will be contested Feb. 6. None of the other 12 candidates on the Democratic ballot have a national following.
