Nevada may be the easiest place in America to vote. You can register the same day, vote early for two weeks, or fill out the ballot that arrives in your mailbox. So why do so few of us bother, and why do so many of us doubt the count?
A recent Pew Research Center study of 50 democratic countries compared turnout of voting-age populations in recent national elections. The U.S. ranked just 31st among the world’s developed countries.
An even more disturbing trend can be found in the October 2026 Gallup poll, which found that “49% of Americans are confident in the honesty of U.S. elections and 51% are not.” The survey about election integrity found that “63% of Democrats said they were confident, compared with 37% of Republicans and 35% of independents.”
Besides the obvious partisan split between Democrats and Republicans, a more disturbing trend can be found in the growing skepticism about elections among nonpartisan and independent voters.
Is one reason that voters have “tuned in” and been “turned off” the never-ending parade of negative media attacks, which won’t allow a recovering politician and NFL and MLB viewer like myself an escape hatch to forget, even for a moment, the slick campaign ads from candidates constantly reminding me their opponent is a liar?
The good news in one study: Data from the States United Democracy Center found that “roughly 65% to 67% of adults express higher trust in local election officials, compared to much lower confidence in broader national election systems or federal oversight.”
On that note, I sat down with the two major-party candidates for Nevada’s chief elections officer, current Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Republican former Assemblyman Jim Marchant, and asked them about themselves and their views on the upcoming election.
Personal background
Aguilar: “After attending elementary school in a basically Latino and Black neighborhood, I went to a high school on the other side of town in a wealthier environment. It was like, this is a whole different world than I knew existed.”
Marchant: “I have always been aware of politics all my life. My father was a businessman, so he was aware politically of how government affects businesses. I became political and aware of politics and how it affects the everyday person.”
Running for office
Marchant: “I know a lot of stuff that’s going on, and it’s not good. It keeps the average person oppressed, and they can’t achieve what they really can. So I want burdensome government out of the way, and certainly the criminals out of government, because they’re using the government and weaponizing it against citizens.”
Aguilar: “Nevada is a small state, and if you want to get things done, you have to work with everybody. Understanding the governor has a certain role in the process, the legislature has a certain role, I have certain policy beliefs. But at the end of the day, what are we going to be able to accomplish?”
Nevada’s voting system
Aguilar: “People should recognize that Nevada runs some of the safest, most secure and accessible elections in the country. We replaced the basic infrastructure, we’ve replaced all the technology, we’ve replaced all the voting machines. And accessibility doesn’t come at the cost of safety and security. That’s why an MIT study found that Nevada is second best in the nation in administering elections, recognizing the amount of work we did during the last three and a half years to build the reliable voting system we have.”
Marchant: “It’s a badge of honor for me to be called an ‘election denier.’ I’m not convinced that we have a fair election, and if it’s done by the machines, I’m not going to trust it. If it’s done by the same election system that’s in place now, it’s going to be false. And then I’d like voter ID, of course. I’d like single-day voting. And like I said, the system that I’m going to put in will not hinder anybody from observing the process.”
Accepting election outcome
Marchant: “We need to be in the open. Every vote, everybody that votes and everybody that counts those votes has to be in the open and transparent. I want a level playing field, and if I don’t get elected, fine. That’s the will of the people. Right now, the will of the people is not what is happening.”
Aguilar: “I have to set the example of the way I want things to be. I could easily throw bombs about it, but that’s not the way. That doesn’t help anybody in Nevada. So I think setting the tone for things you want done requires a conversation. Again, it goes back to Nevada before political party.”
My own view
At least both candidates for Secretary of State appear to have indicated they will accept the outcome of the upcoming vote for their office.
Despite an open and easy voting process, we still have the larger problem of dissatisfaction with the hyper-partisan atmosphere of politics and the turnoff of never-ending political campaigning.
You can be certain that as soon as the midterm elections are over, and the nuclear-waste-like dust of negative attack ads have paralyzed voters into another low-turnout election, we’ll almost immediately begin to see the horse race for the 2028 presidential election handicapped in the media, which is, ironically, the self-serving recipient of the millions of dollars in campaign spending.
Folk singers may ask, “Will the circle be unbroken?” The tired American electorate will certainly be asking whether the cycle of personally destructive politics will ever again take a back seat to decency. After all, the American political process was once thought of as the “last great hope of humankind,” as Abraham Lincoln dreamed.
Is there a message from the majority of voters somewhere in the middle of this infuriating process that may give us more confidence that our vote matters, and more trust that the American experiment in representative democracy will not only last but become vibrant and something we can once again be proud of?
It’s good there are innumerable times and ways that Nevadans can vote for the policies and persons they choose. It may also be good that this November’s ballot includes Question 7 (Voter ID), which could reassure Nevada voters. Voters approved it 73% to 27% in 2024, and it must pass again this year. One recent poll reported in The Nevada Independent shows support from 86% of Republicans, 67% of independents and 48% of Democrats.
Maybe the “memo from the middle” should be this: Nevada may end up with both universal mail ballots and ID checks. Each party gets the half it cares about. It could be argued that a combination will build trust better than either side winning outright, which isn’t likely to happen in the purple state we call home.
Nevada’s greatest election challenge begins with us. Vote your conscience and accept the will of the people, who presumably also voted theirs.
Your thoughts? Reach me at tahoeboy68@gmail.com.