Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Lawmakers are reviewing four Democrat-sponsored bills that would make voting easier and add more opportunities to register.
Members of the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee held a hearing Monday for measures including SB237, a bill sponsored by Sen. Pat Spearman that would allow people to register to vote and cast a ballot on Election Day.
She's also sponsoring SB203, which would allow people to vote at central polling centers in their home county on Election Day rather than only their designated neighborhood polling place. The measure also allows teens as young as 16 to pre-register to vote, and calls for the secretary of state to create a mobile app that could be used to register.
Spearman said the app could be funded by $2 million in savings by migrating from paper to emailed sample ballots.
"If the goal here is to increase civic responsibility, why not speak the language of the people that we're really trying to do outreach to?" she said.
Other bills on the agenda included SB331, which allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to electronically forward voter registration applications to county clerks rather than send only paper forms, and SB316, which would require Clark and Washoe counties to keep early voting centers open at least four hours on Sundays.
Democrats have drawn a contrast between their bills to expand voting and registration options to Republican measures such as SB433, which call for ending early voting on Sundays. Spearman said the bill would halt a practice common in African-American congregations known as "Souls to the Polls," in which churchgoers with limited transportation options get rides to the polls from fellow parishioners.
Republican Sen. Patricia Farley, who chairs the elections committee that sponsored the bill, said the idea was to give poll workers a consistent day off and that the bill actually adds hours of early voting throughout the week. Vice Chair James Settelmeyer, a Republican, said he'd be open to amending the bill and adding Sundays back in as long as the bill retains the goal of making early voting schedules uniform from day to day and region to region.
"We need to have some consistency in our counties," Settelmeyer said.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
