The Specter of Non Voters and the Impossible Lure of the Write-In Option

With official election ballots arriving in local mailboxes for mail-in voting and in-person early voting starting at multiple locations on Oct. 22, there has been chatter on local social media with more and more people saying they won’t vote in certain races.

This has caused alarm among others, more comfortable probably with the status quo, that this non voting will cause their less than preferred candidate to prevail.

Ballot Question 3 proposes voting changes to amend the Nevada Constitution, to have open primaries and ranked choice, but sadly doesn’t open up write-in possibilities. The ballot people are receiving has some races with the None of These Candidates option, which is one way to express dissatisfaction with the established slate, but most electoral contests, even those with just one candidate, don’t have that line.

Example of a ballot from another state, Oregon, which includes write-in possibilities.

In Nevada, according to Ballotpedia, a candidate may access the ballot in just “three ways: as a major party candidate, as a minor party candidate, or as an independent candidate. Write-in candidates are not permitted in this state. Voters can only cast a vote for candidates whose names appear on the ballot.”

Over the past four decades, though, across the country, write-in votes have increased by more than fivefold. There are 10 states plus the District of Columbia which have zero restrictions on write-in voting. Other states require a few documents before a candidate’s votes can be tallied from the write-in line, while other states like Nevada don’t have any such option. Too bad Question 3 doesn’t also give the option to bring write-in lines onto our ballots.

Sue Smith, a former councilwoman (above), laments the lack of current openness and citizen input with our current City Council in both a podcast interview and a feature.

More of Our Reporting Highlights This Week

Family Soup Mutual Aid (coordinators, above) #heroesofreno look back on one year of giving back, with a community party being planned for next week.

Our Town Reno looks into contributions and expenses for Reno City Council races from the past quarter, and finds a few trends, including firefighters putting themselves in favorable conditions for future negotiations.

Our Ideas for Progress series returns with activists in other cities occupying construction sites of luxury apartments and vacant homes being foreclosed and flipped to get affordable housing through community land trusts.

Our TikTok channel (below) went to the Reno British Car Club and found some interesting #humansofreno with beautiful cars.

@ourtownrenoPeter Gulash explains the #renobritishcarclub to @arielsmithrno #keeprenorad #britishcarclub

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