We share something fundamental, every one of us who calls this state home. We want elections we can trust. We want every lawful vote counted and every unlawful one stopped. That desire doesn’t belong to one party, one community or one side of this debate. It belongs to Nevada. And it is precisely because I share that desire that I write today in opposition to Question 7, which would implement voter ID at the polls.
Bob McClure of the James Madison Institute authored a recent Review-Journal commentary supporting Question 7, and I respect his right to do so. I’m responding to their argument — not with contempt, but with the full weight of Nevada’s own record.
Home means Nevada. And in Nevada, our neighbors administer our elections. Our neighbors verify signatures on every mail ballot, matching them against DMV and voter registration records. Our neighbors operate the ballot tracking system that lets voters follow their ballot from issuance to receipt. Our neighbors run the cure process that notifies voters of signature mismatches and gives them the opportunity to correct them. Our neighbors conduct post-election risk-limiting audits that statistically verify results. Bipartisan poll watchers — our neighbors — monitor counting facilities. These systems work. The rare instances of voter irregularities in Nevada have never been enough to change the outcomes in an election and have been swiftly investigated and resolved through existing law.
Question 7 does not strengthen that record. It casts doubt on it. It asks Nevadans to look at the dedicated public servants who administer our elections and conclude that their work is insufficient. I do not accept that conclusion, and I do not believe most Nevadans do either.
Mr. McClure points to Florida as his model. Florida isn’t Nevada. Our demographics differ. Our infrastructure differs. Our history differs. Nevada deserves a solution designed for Nevada, by Nevadans, grounded in Nevada’s actual record — not borrowed from another state.
What Question 7 asks of Nevada is simple: Pay a real price to solve a problem our own record shows does not exist. That price has a face. It is the senior citizen on a fixed income in Elko who no longer drives. It is the working mother in North Las Vegas juggling two jobs who cannot reach a DMV that has limited hours. It is the rural Nevadan who has mailed in a lawful ballot for years and now faces a Social Security provision that turns a routine act of citizenship into a bureaucratic obstacle. These are our neighbors, our friends and our family members. And Nevada, a state that has built one of the most secure and well-administered election systems in the country, deserves better than a constitutional amendment that treats them as suspects. What kind of Nevada do we want to be? The answer lives in our record — and our record says we protect every voter, every time.
I’ve spent my life walking in the legacy of men and women who bled for the right I am asking you to protect. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge so that the act of voting would never again require a citizen to prove their worthiness to participate in their own democracy. I carry a debt to those who sacrificed so that I could stand here, in the city, and say clearly: Nevada’s elections have earned our confidence. Our neighbors have earned our trust.
I invite you to stand with Nevada’s record, with Nevada’s election workers and with every Nevadan whose vote deserves an unobstructed path to the ballot box. Vote “no” on Question 7. Protect Nevada’s freedom to vote.
Quentin-Michael Savwoir is president of the NAACP Las Vegas.
