Nevada

USPS moves ahead on plan to move Nevada mail to CA, despite opposition

Published

2 years ago

April 23, 2024

USPS moves ahead on plan to move Nevada mail to CA, despite opposition

The United States Postal Service announced on Tuesday it is moving forward with a plan to downsize and relocate its outgoing mail processing operations from Reno to Sacramento, much to the ire of Nevada elected officials.

Nevada elected officials on both sides of the aisle pushed back and fought to block the plan when it was introduced last month. Officials said they worry could delay Northern Nevadans from receiving important mail, including prescriptions, as well as impact Nevada’s election process that rely heavily on on-time mail service.

Sen. Jacky Rosen said she is outraged by the decision.

“Let me be absolutely clear: This fight is not over,” the Democratic senator said in a Tuesday statement. “As a member of the committee with jurisdiction over the Postal Service, I will continue to fight against this ill-advised decision and explore all available options to prevent it from being implemented.”

‘Faster and more reliable delivery’

The Postal Service said in its Tuesday announcement that the decision follows a thorough business review and solicitation of public feedback.

Southern Nevada mail is handled in Las Vegas and will not be impacted by the change in Reno, according to Rod Spurgeon, strategic communications specialist for the Postal Service.

As part of a $40 billion investment strategy to upgrade and improve mail processing, the Reno facility will remain open as a local processing center, but outgoing operations will be transferred to a processing and distribution center in West Sacramento, according to the Postal Service.

The Postal Service will invest up to $13.4 million into the Reno facility for expanded and streamlined mail processing and distribution capabilities as part of the Postal Service’s 10-year Delivering for America plan that aims to make the Postal Service more efficient.

Consolidating operations will allow the Reno processing center to be “co-located” with a sorting and delivery center, which will allow the Postal Service to provide faster and more reliable delivery over a larger area, according to the Postal Service.

Funds will be used to update workplace amenities like new lighting and renovated restrooms, according to the Postal Service.

The Postal Service’s Delivering for America plan also aims to achieve a break-even in operating performance over a 10-year period. In fiscal 2023, the Postal Service reported a $6.5 billion loss.

Election concerns

Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said in March that the Postal Service is one of the critical pieces of the puzzle in Nevada’s elections systems, since mail ballots are sent out to every voter unless they opt out of them, and it’s become an increasingly more popular way to vote in the Silver State.

In Washoe, Nevada’s second-largest county, more than 85 percent of voters participated in the February presidential primary with a mail ballot.

Officials and political candidates on both sides of the aisle worry that sending mail ballots from Nevada to California before they are sent back to Northern Nevada — which can face inclement weather in the fall and especially winter — could cause delays in results and could lead to ballots not being counted.

Nevada state law allows for mail ballots to be postmarked on Election Day and must be received by election departments by 5 p.m. on the fourth day after Election Day.

“It’s unfortunate when federal decision makers don’t understand or acknowledge the unique challenges of a local community,” Aguilar said in a statement Tuesday.

The federal government gives the states the responsibility to manage its elections, but it interferes with functions vital to the process, Aguilar said. He hopes the USPS will reconsider its decision and invest into existing Northern Nevada operations.

“The Secretary of State’s Office will continue to focus on running some of the most secure, accessible and safe elections in the country,” Aguilar said.

Another concern from officials were layoffs of Northern Nevadans who work at the facility, however the Postal Service also announced on Tuesday there will be no “career layoffs” as part of the initiative.

Any reduction in the number of pre-career employees will be made in accordance with collective bargaining agreements, according to the Postal Service.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.

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Nevada

Court OK’s counting late-arriving mail ballots in Nevada, 29 other states

Published

2 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

Court OK’s counting late-arriving mail ballots in Nevada, 29 other states

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada’s laws allowing the counting of mail-in ballots that arrive up to four days after Election Day — so long as they are postmarked by that date — is constitutional under a Monday ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a 5-4 ruling, justices upheld a challenge to a Mississippi law that’s similar to Nevada’s statute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the court’s three liberal members, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Katanji Brown Jackson, to uphold the law.

Conservatives Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

The ruling affects 30 states, all of which allow some ballots received after Election Day to be counted. That includes Nevada, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be received and counted up to four days later, and ballots without a postmark to be received and counted up to three days later.

Plaintiffs in the case — including the Republican National Committee and the Mississippi Republican Party — had contended that federal laws referring to “elections” mean both the casting and counting of ballots, which they said must occur on Election Day.

“The federal election-day statutes do not preempt Mississippi’s law because the defining element of an ‘election’ has always been the electorate’s choice of candidate,” the case summary reads. “And a related federal statute — the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act — confirms that while federal law dictates when ballots must be cast, state law governs when they must be received.”

In Nevada, critics have contended that late-arriving ballots erode confidence in elections, because they delay learning final election results for days and, in some close races, can change the outcome.

Gov. Joe Lombardo has called the weeklong wait for final, unofficial results “a national embarrassment.”

Plaintiffs in the case made similar arguments, but were turned away by the court: “Finally, plaintiffs policy arguments about election integrity and voter confidence are properly addressed to legislatures, not courts,” the case summary reads.

Several attempts to require ballots to be received by Election Day have been introduced in Nevada’s Legislature, but none have been successful in the Democratically controlled body.

Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar has argued that the overwhelming majority of ballots are in and counted by Election Day, and only the closest races may be changed by late-arriving ballots. He’s advocated for more resources for county clerks and voter registrars to be able to count mail ballots more quickly.

Under the ruling, nothing will change for Nevada voters going to the polls in four months to vote in the November election. But officials still encourage voters to send in their mail ballots early, or to put them in drop boxes at voting centers during early voting or on Election Day.

Supreme Court upholds late-arriving mail ballots in Mississippi

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Nevada

One dead, four hospitalized after head-on crash on I-15 in Clark County

Published

12 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Press Room

One dead, four hospitalized after head-on crash on I-15 in Clark County

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada Highway Patrol responded to a two-vehicle crash on Interstate 15 near mile marker 94 Sunday evening.

The crash was reported at 6:43 p.m. on June 28.

MORE ON FOX5: Driver sustains life-threatening injuries in Las Vegas multi-vehicle crash

A passenger sedan and a pickup truck were involved in the crash. One vehicle was traveling southbound, lost control, crossed through the median, and struck the other vehicle head-on in the northbound travel lane.

One adult male died at the scene. Two people were transported by ground ambulance, and two others were transported by life flight to a local hospital.