Nevada
Nevada needs election integrity. Who will step up?
To paraphrase the 1960s saying, “suppose they gave a war and nobody came” — suppose we had a November 2024 election and many Nevadans didn’t bother to vote? Or even worse, what if many of those who did don’t accept the results?
Free and fair elections have been the cornerstone of America’s republic. As the saying goes, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” It’s also been suggested that it’s not the voting that’s democracy — it’s the counting that is.
Questioning election legitimacy for a quarter-century
For most of the U.S.’s 236-year history of presidential elections, the results have been uncontested and the transition of power from one individual or political party to another has been relatively smooth. Lately, not so much.
Concern about the integrity of American elections didn’t just start with Donald Trump’s election in 2016, which opponent Hillary Clinton called “illegitimate,” or the most recent presidential contest in 2020, where President Trump has refused to accept an election defeat. The contemporary tipping point that challenged voting integrity was the 2000 Bush v. Gore Florida vote count. This contested election deepened party polarization over the rules of the game and began the current erosion of trust in the American electoral process.
Growing concerns about the security and inclusiveness of the voting process is deeply dividing Americans. Both major political parties share the blame for this. Politicians representing the two major parties have managed to make matters worse.
Anyone who’s been reading “Memo from the Middle” for the past three years knows I’m not quick to judge one side over the other on most issues. But in the case of the situation surrounding America’s election integrity, I think both political parties are guilty of eroding the public’s trust. It’s a serious matter for the survival of freedom. As Founding Father and second president of the U.S. John Adams warned, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
Consequences of a principled stand
If it’s true that America is on the verge of the self-inflicted demise of democracy — then I’d say an “intervention” is needed, and it’s needed now.
Let’s start with the Republicans, my previous party. Their all-but-certain presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has a history of denying the outcome of elections he’s previously lost. Before becoming the GOP nominee in 2016, Trump accused fellow Republican Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucus race he entered, tweeting at the time, “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” and later, “Based on the fraud committed by Sen. Cruz, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.”
The former president went on to win the Republican nomination and the presidency in 2016, losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton but winning the Electoral College. After his election, he began making claims of fraud more regularly.
“I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally,” he claimed.
Trump then went on to announce to his supporters months before his campaign against Joe Biden, including at Nevada rallies, that “the only way we’re going to lose this election (in 2020) is if the election is rigged.” It’s a belief Trump and his party faithful have maintained to this day, and which prompted the large Capitol Hill protest that got out of hand on Nov. 6, 2020.
No court in the U.S. has substantiated the former president’s allegations of significant voter fraud in 2020, and Nevada’s Secretary of State at the time, Barbara Cegavske — herself a conservative Republican — said after investigating Trump’s charges her office found no evidentiary support for his allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Cegavske was subsequently shown the door by the Nevada GOP for the principled stand she took.
What can we agree on?
Presidential candidates of both parties have historically been gracious in accepting electoral defeat. One of the hallmarks of America’s representative democracy has been the smooth transition of power by the two major parties. Today’s polarizing populism, embodied by former President Trump, makes that proposition seem less likely. As author Steven Levitsky has written in “How Democracies Die,” “Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders — presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power … More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely visible steps.”
A number of those steps have also been taken by the other political party, the Democrats. With the benefit of one-party control of Carson City in 2021, Democrats pushed through election “reforms” that Capitol political observers knew to favor Democrats’ partisan agenda. Cegavske wasn’t consulted, nor was she invited to the table to testify in any meetings. Slam-dunk partisan politics were on full display when Democrats powered through legislation that enshrined mail-in ballots and “ballot harvesting” into law during a special session of the Legislature. Provisions by Cegavske to further regulate voting security were rebuffed in a “legal” or “rigged” manner, depending on your perspective. The nonpartisan magazine Governing reported that the mail-in voting method “tends to favor Democratic candidates.”
Despite the convenience of mail-in ballots, problems are surfacing, as voiced recently by interim Washoe County election chief Cari-Ann Burgess, who told the RGJ, “It’s going to be terrible on our elections,” referring to the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to move mail-sorting operations to Sacramento before ballots are returned to Reno for official counting. Imagine the stink conspiracy-minded individuals are going to make over this not-so-brilliant move.
The one issue insuring voting integrity that you would think most Nevadans would agree on would be voter I.D. And in fact, they do. A poll commissioned by the Nevada Independent in 2023 found that “74% of Nevadans (including 62% of Democrats) supported requiring voters to show identification when they cast their ballot.”
Even so, Democratic leadership in Nevada has vehemently opposed any voter I.D. measures, with Attorney General Aaron Ford saying, “I can tell you this, that this attorney general will not abide by an unconstitutional act like voter ID here in this state.” More than 30 other states have photo ID requirements in their laws, and even former Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s Center has said “requiring a photo ID either for in-person or absentee balloting can be an important safeguard for election integrity, and the Supreme Court has ruled that such a requirement is not unconstitutional.”
Democrats in Nevada have rejected serious debate on the matter. Like Donald Trump, who refuses to accept any electoral outcome other than his “winning big” as a possibility, Democrats appear to want to preserve any political advantage they have — when given the power to do so.
Turn the tide
No constitutional office in Nevada is more important to the nonpartisan integrity of the election process than the Secretary of State. Current Democrat officeholder Cisco Aguilar received the support of many Republicans, and former ones like myself, who endorsed him in the hopes he would act in a nonpartisan way when it came to election integrity in Nevada.
Aguilar and others, both Democrat and Republican, have the chance to demonstrate they can become statesmen, and not mere partisans. Between now and the November election, and especially during the next legislative session, Aguilar in particular has the chance to turn the tide of divisiveness.
Voting should be easy. Cheating should be hard. Nevada can do better. Please send me your thoughts at tahoeboy68@gmail.com.
“Memo from the Middle” is an opinion column written by RGJ columnist Pat Hickey, a member of the Nevada Legislature from 1996 to 2016.
Have your say: How to submit an opinion column or letter to the editor
Nevada
Southern Nevada visitation up slightly in November, LVCVA reports
Visitation to Southern Nevada was up less than 1 percent in November, but most other tourism indicators were down from a year ago, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reported late Tuesday.
LVCVA officials said the declines were the result of tough comparisons to last year when the inaugural Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix produced record results in several categories.
Kevin Bagger, vice president of the LVCVA Research Center, said visitation in November was up 0.6 percent to 3.3 million, thanks to the Formula One race and the Specialty Equipment Market Association automotive aftermarket trade show, one of the Las Vegas calendar’s largest annual events.
“November saw higher weekend occupancy vs. last year (89.1 percent, up 0.4 points) but lower midweek occupancy (78.9 percent, down 2 points) as overall hotel occupancy for the month reached 81.4 percent, down 0.5 points,” Bagger said. “While down compared to the record-shattering levels tied to last year’s inaugural F1 race, monthly average daily room rates this year saw the second-highest on record for the month of November, reaching $198.72, down 20.3 percent year over year.”
The declines mirrored downturns in the number of passengers seen at Harry Reid International Airport, 4.7 million, down 2.1 percent, and the average daily automobile traffic on Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada border, 44,916, down 2 percent.
There was a net decrease in midsize and small meetings in Las Vegas during the month resulting in a total 548,200 convention visitors, off 8.4 percent from a year ago.
Clark County’s gross gaming revenue has yet to be reported by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
Despite the late-year decline – October was the second month in 2024 to have fewer visitors than the previous year – Las Vegas is still on track to have a higher total in 2024 than 2023. After 11 months, 38.3 million had visited the city, up 2.2 percent from a year ago.
Other indicators aren’t as robust, with the 5.7 million convention attendance off 1.3 percent, hotel room occupancy down 0.1 point to 83.7 percent and I-15 traffic at the California border down 0.6 percent.
Still, airport traffic is on track for a record 2024 with 53.6 million passengers so far, up 1.4 percent, and the average daily room rate up 0.7 percent to $193.12 a night.
Two other Southern Nevada cities were on opposite ends of November results.
Laughlin saw visitor volume increase 5.9 percent for the month to 94,000, with occupancy down 0.7 points to 42.4 percent and room rates down 0.5 percent to $55.08. For 11 months, Laughlin visitation is up 3.3 percent to 1.2 million, the occupancy rate is down 1.5 points to 50.3 percent, and the average room rate is down 0.9 percent to $60.82.
Mesquite’s visitor volume in November fell 10.8 percent to 66,000 with occupancy down 3.7 points to 72.9 percent and room rates up 9.3 percent to $89.65 a night.
For 11 months, Mesquite visitation is down 8.8 percent to 778,000, the occupancy rate is down 4.5 points to 74.5 percent, and the average room rate is up 10.2 percent to $83.19.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
Nevada
Nevada football to play Montana State in 2026, completes non-conference schedule
The Nevada football team completed its 2026 non-conference schedule with the addition of head coach Jeff Choate’s former school.
The Wolf Pack will host Montana State on Sept. 12, 2026 at Mackay Stadium. Choate coached the Bobcats for four seasons from 2016 to 2019.
The game completes Nevada’s 2026 nonconference slate. The Wolf Pack will host Western Kentucky in its 2026 home opener Sept. 5, then following the game with Montana State will travel to UCLA (Sept. 19) and Middle Tennessee (Sept. 26).
The 2026 meeting will be the first between Nevada and Montana State since 1996, a 31-7 Wolf Pack victory at Mackay Stadium. Nevada leads the overall series, 12-6, including a 9-4 mark in Big Sky play from 1979-91.
Choate led the Bobcats to a combined 19-9 record over his final two seasons, making consecutive appearances in the FCS playoffs with a run to the semifinals in 2019.
Nevada
Inmate deaths reported at Northern Nevada prisons
CARSON CITY, Nev. (KOLO) -The Nevada Department of Corrections this week announced the deaths of inmates in Lovelock and Carson City.
Anthony Quinones, 36, was pronounced dead Dec. 14 at the Lovelock Correctional Center.
Quinones was sent to prison in March 2020 from Washoe County and was serving a sentence of 91 months to 228 months for kidnapping and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. His next of kin have been notified.
Quinones and another defendant took a man to a Spanish Springs credit union and forced him to withdraw money at gunpoint.
William Redman, 71, died Dec. 24 at Carson Tahoe Regional Medical Center. Redman was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for murder in May 2011 in Clark County,. He was serving time in the Northern Nevada Correctional Center when he died. NDOC reports no next of kin have been found.
Court documents said Redman stabbed and killed his 12-year old daughter in his family’s mobile home in Las Vegas. Redman believed he needed to kill his daughter and himself to stop Armageddon.
NDOC reported no causes of death for either inmate but said autopsies were requested.
Copyright 2025 KOLO. All rights reserved.
-
Technology1 week ago
There’s a reason Metaphor: ReFantanzio’s battle music sounds as cool as it does
-
Business1 week ago
On a quest for global domination, Chinese EV makers are upending Thailand's auto industry
-
Health5 days ago
New Year life lessons from country star: 'Never forget where you came from'
-
Technology5 days ago
Meta’s ‘software update issue’ has been breaking Quest headsets for weeks
-
World1 week ago
Passenger plane crashes in Kazakhstan: Emergencies ministry
-
Politics1 week ago
It's official: Biden signs new law, designates bald eagle as 'national bird'
-
Business2 days ago
These are the top 7 issues facing the struggling restaurant industry in 2025
-
Politics7 days ago
'Politics is bad for business.' Why Disney's Bob Iger is trying to avoid hot buttons