Now, friends, I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen six grown men grin so wide for a photograph that wound up aging worse than a milk jug on a July windowsill. Back in the frost-bitten days of December 2020, six Republican gentlepersons from Nevada put on their Sunday best, marched themselves in like they’s starring in a school play, and cast electoral votes for Donald Trump–votes that, mind you, were about as official as a poker game in a church basement.
They mailed the votes to Washington like it was Christmas and the Capitol was Santa Claus. Trouble was, Washington already had all the votes it needed–and these six had no invite to the party. Thus, they earned themselves the moniker “fake electors,” the political equivalent of being called a counterfeit penny.
Enter Senator Skip Daly, who saw the spectacle and figured something needed to get done lest the great Silver State become a stage for political playacting. So he cooked up a bill to outlaw the showboatin’. The bill made it to the governor’s desk in 2023 — where it got vetoed by Governor Joe Lombardo, who said the whole thing smelled too much like government overreach and handed it back like an unwanted fruitcake.
“In his veto message, he said it was a terrible crime, it was a scheme,” Daly remarked–recalling it with all the warmth of a porcupine in a bedroll. But the governor also said the punishment was steeper than the one given to somebody peddling fentanyl, and that, folks, is a comparison that’ll knock the starch out of any argument.
So Daly returned to the kitchen, stirred the pot again, and out came Senate Bill 102, a slimmer, softer version of the original. No more 10-year sentences–now it’s just one to four years, with the possibility of probation if you pinky-promise to behave.
And while it won’t ban you from working for the city entirely, don’t expect to be running for mayor’s office if you’ve been playacting with the people’s votes. Daly says if you want to trim hedges for the Parks Department, be his guest–but don’t expect a crown.
The bill slid through the Senate 13 to eight, right down the usual party lines like a greasy biscuit. It now sits before the Assembly Legislative Operations and Elections Committee–a name that sounds more complicated than the work. Daly’s optimistic–but says the real nail-biter is whether Governor Lombardo’ll sign the thing in 2025–or toss it back again like a hot horseshoe.
Before anyone hollers about censorship or tyranny, let me be as crystal-clear as Lake Bigler–the Right to Free Speech still exists. You can say you believe in Sasquatch, space lizards, or landslides in Nevada elections–nobody’s stopping you. But when you start signing your name to things that ain’t official and mailing them to Congress like you’re a founding father, don’t be surprised when the law taps you on the shoulder.
It’s a story about the line between talking politics and doing politics — and Nevada, bless her silver heart, is still trying to sort out the difference between itself and the federal government.
The Old Blog in the Desert 