LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A last-minute bill offered by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager would let non-partisan voters cast ballots in major-party primaries for the first time.
The bill was introduced by an emergency request from Yeager, D-Clark County. It's Assembly Bill 597. A hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Monday.
VIDEO: Steve Sebelius reports the latest on last-minute bill that would allow non-partisan voters to cast ballots in primaries
The bill is similar to a ballot initiative that was rejected by voters in November.
That initiative would have amended the state constitution to create totally open primaries in which all voters cast ballots for any candidate, regardless of party.
The top five vote-getters would then have advanced to a general election, where voters would have been asked to rank their choices in order of preference.
Although that initiative was approved in 2022 by a vote of 53% to 47%, voters shifted in November and rejected it by the exact same margin.
But Yeager's bill differs in one significant way: It would not create the so-called jungle primary, where all candidates from all parties run on the same ballot, and voters from all political parties cast a ballot for anyone they choose.
Instead, the bill would allow a nonpartisan voter to choose to vote a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot, but not to vote for candidates of both parties up and down the ballot.
The bill does not include the ranked-choice feature of the failed ballot initiative.
Still, it would be a major change in Nevada, which is currently a closed-primary state.
Fully 35% of Nevada's electorate is currently registered as nonpartisan, and thus unable to vote in Republican or Democratic primary elections.
Nonpartisans outpace Republicans and Democrats, both of which account for 29% of the electorate.
Opponents of the bill make a simple argument: If a person wants to vote in a major party's primary, that person should join and become a member of that party. Democrats should not get a say, they argue, in who represents the Republican Party in a general election, or vice versa.
Moreover, Nevada's voter-registration laws make switching parties easy; a voter could easily register as a Republican to vote in the primary and switch back the following election to register as a Democrat and vote in that party's primary.
