Politics and Policy

Illustration with text that says, “KUNR 2022 Elections.” There is an implied surface with a pencil, a roll of stickers and a ballot box placed on top of it. A Nevada-shaped sticker is on the front of the ballot box.

KUNR 2022 Election Coverage

Stories from the KUNR newsroom and regional partners related to the 2022 elections

Candidates for Nevada Secretary of State disagree about showing ID to vote

KUNR Public Radio | By Lucia Starbuck

Published October 21, 2022 at 2:59 PM PDT

Cisco Aguilar sits at a long table with microphones by himself. There’s a projector behind him that reads, “Secretary of State Candidates Cisco Aguilar (D) Jim Merchant (R) invited.” — Nevada Secretary of State Democratic Candidate Cisco Aguilar at an election forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City on Oct. 17, 2022.

The major party candidates running for Secretary of State were invited to a forum in Carson City this week hosted by the League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada, but only one showed up.

This position handles election administration, among other state legislative tasks. The office has been under public scrutiny over the last two years as election conspiracies abound.

A crowd of people seated inside a retrofitted church. — The crowd at an election forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Northern Nevada at the Brewery Arts Center in Carson City on Oct. 17, 2022.

Democrat Cisco Aguilar is a lawyer in Las Vegas and previously served on the Nevada Athletic Commission. He supports the state’s current voting measures like mail-in ballots but not showing ID at the polls, which isn’t required in most cases.

“Voter IDs is … I think a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist,” Aguilar said.

His opponent, Republican Jim Marchant, supports voter ID and using paper ballots versus voting machines.

If elected, Aguilar wants to put forth a bill that would make it a felony to harass or intimidate poll workers, which has been an issue following former President Donald Trump’s claim of a rigged election in 2020.

Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.