On February 22, 2024, the Nevada Policy Research Institute published a paper titled “Efficient, Timely and Reliable, A Framework for Election Law in Nevada. It is written by Walter Olson, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute.
I found its content on election administration interesting, even though the report is minorly marred by several typos.
Nevada has recently had a poor performance regarding timely reporting of election results, and Olson points out that there are tradeoffs and tensions between competing goals of an election system.
Among his recommendations are:
#1: Nevada should complete its transition from “county-led voter registration to a so-called top-down system with extensive statewide direction”…”with a single constantly updated statewide uniform database overseen by the secretary of state.”
#2: An accurate voter database should be a top priority, with investment in “multiple frequently refreshed high-quality data sources and proactively reaching out to households and addresses following evidence of moves and other relevant changes.”
#3: “Nevada should stay in the Electronic Registration and Information Center, and work to improve and refine its capabilities.”
#4: “To keep voters informed of the progress of their ballots, Nevada should finish the job of adopting strong ballot tracking and notification.”
#5: In addition to their signature, voters should have to write their driver’s license number or last four digits of their Social Security Number on their mail-in ballots.
#6: Nevada should invest in making ballot drop boxes more secure and in employee protocols for handling ballots, and
#7: End the practice of ballot harvesting.
Here is the Nevada Policy report on Nevada election administration.