By Lizzie Ramirez
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar visited the University of Nevada Reno’s campus on Wednesday to have “engaging conversations” about democracy, the upcoming presidential election and the power students have in voting.
A mix of students, faculty and community members gathered in the Center of Student Engagement, quietly eating pizza and murmuring about whether university president Brian Sandoval would show up to the event. He arrived just before noon, exchanged a quick greeting with Aguilar then stood in front of the room to start the event.
“It’s a really important year for our state and for our country in regard to elections,” Sandoval said. “I was so happy when [Aguilar] was elected into this position because I knew it would bring somebody with the utmost amount of integrity and somebody who cares deeply about the state.”
The room erupted in applause with Sandoval’s introduction.
“Nevada is a battleground state… we are going to determine who the next president of the United States is and that power is going to come down to Washoe County,” Aguilar said. “Washoe County is the battleground county in the battleground state.”
Aguilar emphasized the power students have when they vote in elections. “As students, [you] have the power to swing an election because the margins are so small,” he said.
In the 2020 Presidential Election, President Joe Biden won in Washoe County by just 4% of votes. Nevada students also had a 72% turnout rate, proving how powerful the student vote is.
Aguilar not only emphasized that students vote, but to also encourage their peers to vote.
“Remember that, even though you’re voting, you have a responsibility to get others to vote across this campus and have them express their voice, because the more people that vote in Nevada, the better off we’re going to be as leaders,” Aguilar said. “We’re going to know what your priorities are, and we’re going to be more cohesive as a community.”
After Aguilar’s introduction speech, he quickly turned it over to the audience for questions. Some students asked for advice, such as whether they should vote in person or through the mail-in ballot. Others asked how votes get certified and how to stay informed with trustworthy information. Some even challenged Aguilar with their beliefs on how election day should run.
Sandoval was the first person to ask a question, asking about the recent signature cards that residents received and the privacy concerns some expressed since there were no envelopes involved in the process.
Aguilar took the time to explain the thought process and purpose of these signature cards.
“There were a lot of ballots that had to be cured in [20]22 and that takes up a significant amount of staff time and capacity time of leadership,” Aguilar said. “If we can bring down that number, and we can make sure that voters had the most updated address on file or signature on file, that will allow us to process more ballots quickly.”
When a mail-in ballot is received, it’s scanned and is compared against a signature the voter has on file. If it matches, it gets processed. If it doesn’t, then it goes to a bipartisan team, one Republican and one Democrat. They look at the signature on the ballot and they compare it to all signatures the voter has on file. If the two agree it matches, it gets processed. If not, then it goes into “curing,” and that’s where “a lot of time is spent by staff.”
Ballots that must be “cured” are those with signature verification issues or other minor mistakes. Staff from the Registrar of Voters office must contact each voter with a ballot in need of curing and invite them to fix the mistakes or confirm their signature or identification details within a certain timeframe for their ballot to be counted. In the June primary election, 841 ballots in Washoe County needed signature curing—about 1% of all ballots cast.
As for addressing the security concerns, Aguilar said the process to get the signature card back to the Secretary of State’s office is safe.
“You can drop it off at the county office, or you can stick it in an envelope and mail it back to the county for security purposes,” Aguilar explained. “It was all up to the voter how they wanted to do it, but we needed those signatures, and it was also the most efficient way for us to get voters to update their signatures without having to fill out a full voter registration form.”
One student admitted they feel they don’t have all the information they need to make an informed vote and asked Aguilar where he suggests students go to search for that information.
Aguilar said voter guides should be sent out very soon and that’ll be the “primary source” for voting information. He emphasized the importance of understanding the ballot questions as well.
Another student asked how Aguilar hopes to improve voter turnout, bringing up speculations of Nevada making Election Day a “national holiday” and letting people take the day off of work to go vote.
“In Nevada, that’s a little bit of a misnomer, because Nevada is a working state. We are a 24/7 economy,” Aguilar explained. “It would benefit people like me who work in an office, but people driving Uber, working in the casino industry, working in the mines, they don’t get that luxury to leave when they can right? They only make money when they’re working.”
One student challenged Aguilar on his explanation, saying he “fails to see how that’s an issue” because workers are allegedly allowed to take three-hour breaks to vote.
Aguilar used southern Nevada as an example, explaining how people live off of tips there.
“If they leave the floor for two hours to go vote, that’s lost income for them,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar also pointed out that just because there’s a national holiday, that doesn’t mean industry workers have the luxury to take the day off because “the casinos are open 24/7, mines are open 24/7.”
The event wrapped up with the Associated Students of the University of Nevada President Dawson Deal emphasizing the words Aguilar said at the very beginning.
“With the undergraduate population of nearly 17,000 — graduate [students] of a couple thousand, and it’s in a swing district, in a swing state,” Deal said. “I mean, that can tip an election right?”
