The Territorial

Nevada Politicians Agree on Something

It is a well-established fact, known to all students of the human species– that expecting legislators to agree on anything is much like expecting a cat to take to water–or a lawyer to refuse a fee—contrary to nature itself. And yet, in the grand and baffling spectacle–the Nevada Legislature, a marvel has appeared–a bipartisan bill on the ever-divisive topic of mail ballots.

This curiosity, known as Assembly Bill 148, proposes that sample ballots get sent out before the state’s infamous mail ballots make their rounds. One might think such a notion was simply a matter of common sense, but common sense is an unwelcome guest in political chambers, so it’s treated as a legislative breakthrough.

Assembly Minority Leader Gregory Hafen, a Republican, has taken the lead, and—miracle of miracles—Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, a Democrat, has joined him in this rarefied air of agreement. Even Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar has nodded in approval, proving that anything is possible in the Silver State, even reason.

The bill sets new deadlines for mailing ballots, ensuring that the sample ballots, meant to educate voters, do not arrive as an afterthought. Receiving their mail ballots, some citizens assumed them to be sample ballots, staring at the lack of indication that the paper before them was for practice, not participation.

Once again, government efficiency achieved the remarkable feat of confusing the people it meant to serve.

Naturally, this singular moment of cooperation does not signal a new era of legislative harmony. Republicans remain determined to rein in the wild and woolly practice of counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, as Democrats stand guard over the laws they put in place during the pandemic.

Governor Joe Lombardo, a man known for surrender, has even suggested taking the fight to the people should his efforts to reform mail voting be thwarted by the Democratic majority.

Still, for now, AB148 stands as a monument to that rarest of political occurrences–an agreement and a thing so uncommon, so utterly unheard of, that one suspects it will soon be put on display at the Nevada State Museum alongside the bones of prehistoric creatures. And like those ancient relics, it may soon be a thing of the past.