As America heads toward another high-profile presidential election, Nevada is emerging as a closely watched swing state that will likely determine which party wins the White House in November.
Although the Silver State has been considered more pro-Democracy since Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, it has slowly traded in its blue hue for a purple one in recent years. President Joe Biden, for example, won Nevada by less than 34,000 votes in the 2020 election. The margins were even closer in the state’s 2022 election, with Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and now-Republican Governor Joe Lombardo winning their races by 7,928 and 15,386 votes, respectively.
In a state where residents on the “active” voter rolls are automatically mailed a ballot each election cycle, ballot-hunting campaigns will undoubtedly play a critical role in deciding the outcome of numerous elections and proposals to amend the state constitution.
Ballot hunting is a process in which third parties, often on a regular basis during a given election cycle, contact potential voters with the ultimate goal of getting that voter to vote in the primary and general elections. In states like Nevada, these third parties can also “harvest” or deliver a voter’s ballots if the voter gives them authorization to do so.
While Democrats have used this tactic to win close elections in recent years, one group is now hoping their vote-grabbing efforts will be enough to get Republicans and conservative priorities across the finish line.
The grassroots organization called the Sun City Summerlin Conservatives Club (SCSCC) wants to compete with the Democratic electoral machine by getting the ballots of conservative voters into the polls this year.
“We will do everything we can to get Donald Trump … and all of our Republican candidates in office,” SCSCC President Jeff DiPane told The Federalist.
Ballot hunt
While there was limited voter mobilization activity in the 2022 midterm elections, the SCSCC’s get-out-the-vote campaigns gained momentum in the years following those elections.
The group is based in Sun City Summerlin, a 55-and-over neighborhood less than 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, and is active throughout Nevada’s most populous county, Clark County. The organization — which has supported the Pigpen Project in its efforts to clean up Nevada’s voter rolls — is made up of Sun City residents and primarily targets low-leaning GOP voters in the community and surrounding areas.
DiPane explained that by having local volunteers lead SCSCC’s election campaigns, the organization is able to build relationships with these potential voters.
“It’s about touch points. They know we live where they live, we have a pretty good reputation as a group and friendly people,” DiPane said. “We leave them literature at their house when they’re not home and things like that. We call them … (and) try to be there year-round.”
The group also hosts neighborhood open houses where residents can learn about issues and candidates and ask questions about the political process.
The SCSCC president noted that this strategy allows the organization to build trust with these low-turnout voters, who view SCSCC volunteers as credible sources of information about candidates, issues, and the electoral process. This trust is also critical to the organization’s ultimate goal of getting these voters to vote in elections.
DiPane said SCSCC volunteers provide rides for voters, mostly older people, who cannot drive themselves to the polls. They also offer to drop off voters’ completed ballots if they have permission to do so.
Citing potential problems caused by the U.S. Postal Service’s delivery system, DiPane encouraged Nevada voters to drop off their mail-in ballots in person or designate a trusted person to deliver them on their behalf rather than mailing them back. During the recent Utah primary, for example, an issue arose in which mail-in ballots from the state’s southern counties were allegedly diverted to the USPS distribution center in Las Vegas for processing. The incident is said to have disenfranchised more than 1,000 voters and potentially changed the outcome of a Republican congressional primary.
We’re telling voters, ‘Instead of mailing in your ballot, we’re going to drop it off at the polling place or drive you there,'” DiPane said, expressing concern that mail from the north of the state could be diverted to the USPS processing center in neighboring California before ending up back in Nevada.
When asked whether mail from Northern Nevada would be rerouted through the agency’s distribution center in Sacramento, California, USPS spokesman John Hyatt told The Federalist that while he “cannot speak for every single shipment,” the agency “has not changed the way mail from Northern Nevada is processed at the Reno (Processing & Distribution Center).”
“Local mail delivery currently takes two to three days and will continue to do so,” Hyatt said.
Protecting Nevada’s Constitution
However, the SCSCC’s efforts to gain votes are only part of its activities.
DiPane said the group wants to inform voters about several constitutional amendment proposals that will be debated in the state in the 2024 election. The organization’s campaign centers on an initiative aimed at enshrining voter ID requirements in the Nevada Constitution.
The Nevada Voter Identification Initiative, approved earlier this year to provide ballot access, would require eligible voters to present a valid photo ID when voting in person. Those voting by mail would have to “verify their identity using the last four digits of their driver’s license or social security number or the number assigned to them by the county clerk when they registered to vote,” Ballotpedia says.
DiPane said the SCSCC helped the amendment’s sponsors collect enough signatures to put it on the ballot for the November election. That effort, he explained, helped the group further strengthen its ballot-hunting efforts by providing more opportunities to connect with potential voters in the Sun City Summerlin community and the Las Vegas area.
“We went to Trump rallies, we went to gun stores, we went to every kind of conservative event and we got signatures from voters,” he said. “It just shows how successful grassroots movements can be when people get involved.”
While much of the SCSCC’s work related to the constitutional amendment was devoted to collecting signatures for the voter ID initiative, DiPane said the group is now shifting its focus to getting voters to approve the measure and informing them about another constitutional amendment proposal that would require the adoption of ranked-choice voting (ranked-choice voting) in elections.
The proposal, called the “Top-Five Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative,” would create “open primaries (for voters) to choose candidates for the general election,” after which “all voters can then rank the remaining candidates by preference.” The change would require the disastrous system – which Democrats have weaponized to capture seats traditionally held by Republicans – to be used for congressional, gubernatorial, state executive and state legislative elections. The RCV system has reportedly resulted in inaccurate election results and high numbers of discarded ballots in the jurisdictions where it has been used.
The SCSCC is in the process of creating informational materials to distribute to voters warning them about RCV’s disgraceful track record. DiPane says using Alaska’s RCV-run elections as an example of how the system gives power to Democrats in Republican strongholds seems to be an effective way to persuade voters to oppose the change.
“Ranked choice voting is so complicated (and) very difficult for many people to understand,” DiPane explained. “So we’re trying to simplify it … (and) will be active (fighting against this measure) hand in hand with our voter ID.”
In Nevada, constitutional amendment proposals developed through citizen-initiated signature-gathering campaigns must be approved by voters in two consecutive general elections to change the state’s charter. This year’s election will mark the first time the voter ID initiative has appeared on the ballot, while the pro-RCV initiative was approved by voters in the state’s 2022 midterm elections.
Don’t leave anything on the table
While thanking the SCSCC volunteers for their hard work and dedication, DiPane also emphasized the importance of civic engagement and encouraged his fellow Americans to stop holding back and make a difference in their own communities.
“I want people to know that their vote counts and that they can make a difference,” he said. “Everyone thought this voter ID initiative would never happen. But it happened because people got involved.”
Shawn Fleetwood is an editor at The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a content writer for the Convention of States Action and his work has appeared in numerous media outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter at @ShawnFleetwood
