LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Gov. Joe Lombardo says he has no problem with voting by mail.
He just wants people who use mail-in ballots to request one.
Ever since COVID-19, all active registered voters in Nevada get a mail ballot sent to their home automatically. But now that the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, the governor says, it's time to go back to the way things were before.
WATCH | Lombardo: Plenty of time to vote by mail
"As a result of COVID, a decision was made, but that was a COVID-era decision, and there's no reason to continue it in perpetuity," Lombardo said in an exclusive interview with Channel 13. "When the emergency is over, right? You can't make up the emergency as you go along the way."
Lombardo said universal mail balloting is expensive and results in waste and potential fraud, as ballots go unused or are sent to old addresses.
"It costs $12 million, approximately $12 million, to do universal mail, and a lot of those pieces of paper or ballots end up in the trash as a result of that process," Lombardo said. "And it is not difficult, it's not regressive, it's not in any form detrimental for an individual to make the simple effort to request a mail ballot."
But he's especially adamant about moving back the deadline for mail ballots to be received, so that all ballots are in the hands of county clerks on Election Day. (Currently, ballots can be received and counted up to four days later if they are postmarked by Election Day, or received and counted up to three days later if they arrive without a postmark.)
"And all that time, all that time, from the day you received it, you couldn't make the decision until then, with all the opportunities we give you? And then, OK, yeah, but let's give you a little more time," Lombardo said. "We're a national embarrassment."
Democrats defend universal mail ballots, saying they make voting as easy as possible. And Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says that the vast majority of ballots are received by Election Day, with the results in all but the closest races decided by then.
But there have been races in which one candidate was ahead on Election Day, only to see their lead slip away as mail ballots trickle in and are counted after Election Day. While some have alleged fraud in those circumstances, others maintain the changing numbers are merely evidence of counting legitimately cast votes.
Nevada's water woes
Lombardo said the ongoing dispute over allocation of water from the Colorado River has pointed out the disparities between upper basin states such as Colorado and Wyoming and lower basin states such as Nevada.
The Silver State has led the way in water conservation efforts as well as water recycling, sending most of the water used back to Lake Mead, and benefiting from return flow credits against the state's 300,000 acre foot allocation.
But upper basin states don't have those water recycling programs, Lombardo said. "So if you put it in a timeline, so 30, 40 years, we're using the same amount of water that we did 40 years ago because of all those efforts," he said.
One of the most common questions asked about water in Nevada is, will there be enough water to keep growing, or will growth controls become necessary? Lombardo says Las Vegas can continue to grow, relying on Colorado River water and groundwater.
"And there's a certain number of years that is available in the groundwater space, so we are not in that draw yet," he said.
But growth is essential to the state's success, Lombardo said. "If you don't expand, you die. That's a basic tenet of economy, economic drivers of knowledge," he said. "If you don't expand, you're going to die. And we have to diversify. We have to expand in order to survive into the future. And water is part of it, right? It's obviously part of it."
Talking to Trump
Lombardo has been criticized by one of his Democratic challengers for governor — Attorney General Aaron Ford — for not using his relationship with President Donald Trump to secure benefits for Nevadans.
The governor said he does speak to the president, but not on every issue.
"I have constant conversations with him," Lombardo said of the president, citing issues such as energy, public lands and a recent change to gambling loss tax deductions.
But Lombardo also said he hasn't criticized the president's policy on tariffs, for example, believing the president has input from experts in government that outweighs a state governor's views.
"It would be malpractice for me to say, 'Hey, your idea on tariffs is flawed when he has the experts in those spaces, you know, the Department of Defense and the treasurer, and everything we're dealing with as a nation outside of Nevada, for me to think he would just solely rely on my relationship or my opinion, OK?"
But Lombardo said the president has listened when an issue specifically affects the Silver State. Asked for an example, Lombardo quickly cited solar energy subsidies.
"They stopped production, even ongoing and projects that are in the hopper... solar productions and solar fields and everything else that goes along with solar over in the hopper for federal subsidies. He [Trump] says the federal government would no longer subsidize any of those projects and they would recall any money subsidized on those projects," Lombardo said.
"I immediately called him to say, 'Hey, we're not like every other state. We rely on solar energy to the tune of approximately 30% in today's numbers, and we're a little bit different because we don't have all the modalities of energy that other states have experienced and we can't afford to lose this. And he was very receptive and immediately made a decision to allow us to move forward."
Lombardo met with Trump during a visit to Las Vegas this month, but did not attend a public town hall the president held downtown to tout his No Tax on Tips promise.
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