Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Nevada House Speaker Says It's Time to Give the State's Largest Voting Bloc Access to Primaries

Nevada House Speaker Says It's Time to Give the State's Largest Voting Bloc Access to Primaries

Las Vegas, Nevada sign

Photo by Grant Cai on Unsplash.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. - Nevada’s largest registered voting bloc – unaffiliated voters – could soon gain access to the state’s taxpayer-funded primaries, if a new bill from Democratic Nevada House Speaker Steve Yeager becomes law.

The bill, AB597, was introduced Monday with one week left in the session. It gives registered unaffiliated voters the option to submit an online request for a party's primary ballot no later than 14 days ahead of a primary or during in-person voting.


Unaffiliated voters would be limited to the primary ballot of a single party and the state’s voter registration list would be updated to indicate which party’s ballot a voter selected. Registered party members would still have to vote in their respective party’s primary.

“It’s just time to make sure that nonpartisans and non-affiliated voters can vote in partisan elections,” Yeager said. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while.”

His bill would grant equal access to the public elections process to voters that outnumber Republican and Democratic registration. As of April, roughly 35% of the state’s 2.13 million registered voters did not register with a political party.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats each account for 29% of the registered voter population – and yet, only a marginal percentage of these voters decide the candidates that appear on the general election ballot each election cycle.

It is unclear what chance AB597 has at passage. A bill introduced this late in the legislative session by the highest official in the Nevada House could suggest a deal has been made. However, while Yaegar’s party holds significant majorities in the legislature, GOP opposition could still hinder the bill's chances.

Nevada Republican Party Chair Michael McDonald simply said “NOPE” in response to the bill. The state’s governor, Joe Lombardo, is a Republican.

A nonpartisan election system was on the November ballot in Nevada under Question 3. The initiative combined a nonpartisan top five primary open to all candidates and voters, regardless of party, with ranked choice voting in the general election.

While a majority of voters approved it in 2022, a slim majority rejected it in 2024. As the initiative would make changes to the state’s constitution, it required approval in two consecutive elections to become law.

Yeager’s proposal would not give voters such a wide breadth of options in primary elections. However, it would give independent voters access to a critical stage of the public elections process that they are currently denied.

Nevada House Speaker Says It's Time to Give the State's Largest Voting Bloc Access to Primaries was originally published by Independent Voter News and is shared with permission.

Shawn Griffiths Is An Election Reform Expert And National Editor Of IVN.us.

Read More

Supreme Court greenlights Project 2025 Plan to Dismantle  Education Department

In the summer of 2025, the Trump administration’s education agenda is beginning to mirror the blueprint laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

Getty Images, Maskot

Supreme Court greenlights Project 2025 Plan to Dismantle  Education Department

This past spring and summer, The Fulcrum published a 30-part, nonpartisan series examining Project 2025—a sweeping policy blueprint for a potential second Trump administration. Our analysis explored the proposed reforms and their far-reaching implications across government. Now, as the 2025 administration begins to take shape, it’s time to move from speculation to reality.

In this follow-up, we turn our focus to one of the most consequential—and quietly unfolding—chapters of that blueprint: the dismantling of public education.

Keep ReadingShow less
Community-Driven Support Helps Refugees Thrive

Illustration of silhouette refugees walking in line over American flag

Getty Images I stock illustration

Community-Driven Support Helps Refugees Thrive

Ali’s name has been changed to protect his identity and ensure the safety of his family, who remain in Afghanistan. The name of the Colorado nonprofit featured in this story has also been withheld out of concern for the potential danger to the refugee clients it serves.

Ali knew it was time to flee on August 15, 2021. The day the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, he and his family became a vulnerable minority overnight. Fearing for their safety, they fled – first to Iran, then Qatar, then Japan – before ultimately resettling in Colorado in 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rock Stars of American Science May Soon Take Their Expertise Abroad. That Should Alarm All Americans.
person in blue shirt writing on white paper
Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

Rock Stars of American Science May Soon Take Their Expertise Abroad. That Should Alarm All Americans.

Recently, I attended a West Coast conference on the latest research findings in cosmology and found myself sitting in a faculty dining hall with colleagues from around the country. If it had taken place a few months earlier, our conversation would have been filled with debates on the morning’s presentations, but now everything had changed. Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s attacks on universities and research funding, the question we struggled with was: “When is it time to leave the U.S. and establish our research programs elsewhere?”

One colleague planned to enroll their children in an international school to learn French in case the family had to leave the country in the next few years. Another, whose home institution has been under particularly fierce attacks by the government, said they would stay and fight to support their students, but only so long as their family remained safe. At the same meeting, I heard from a Canadian researcher whose institution was compiling a list of American scientists now considered vulnerable.

Keep ReadingShow less
As Puerto Rico’s Power Grid Crumbles, Rural Medical Patients Are Turning to Rooftop Solar

Plaza de la Independencia Energetica, operated by Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. The plaza’s solar panels provide power and shelter for Adjuntas residents to use during natural disasters.


Photo Provided

As Puerto Rico’s Power Grid Crumbles, Rural Medical Patients Are Turning to Rooftop Solar

In this two-part series, Lily Carey reports on energy instability in rural Puerto Rico and its impact on residents with chronic medical conditions. Faced with limited government support, community members have begun building their own power structures from the ground up, ranging from solar microgrids to community health clinics.

In the second and final part of the series, Carey reports on how local activists are providing for sick and elderly residents in Puerto Rico’s Cordillera Central.

Keep ReadingShow less