LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Has this happened to you: You get a package from the Clark County elections office, containing your official mail-in ballot, but you still have questions?
Who are these people? What are these ballot questions? Where do I even go to vote?
During the 2024 elections, that happened to more than a few people. That's because, in some cases, official sample ballots arrived in mailboxes after the official ballot did.
Sample ballots contain not only the names and races each individual voter will see on her or his actual ballot, but also information about how to vote, where they can drop off mail ballots or vote in person and even a map to all of the voting centers.
Some voters had to wait to get their sample ballots, which caused some confusion.
That's why Republican Assemblyman Greg Hafen II — the Republican minority leader — decided to introduce Assembly Bill 148, which would require county clerks to mail sample ballots before they send mail-in ballots, and certainly before the two-week period of early voting starts.
Hafen said he got his mail ballot in September, more than a month before the election, but his sample ballot didn't show up until later. Ditto for many of the people he represents.
"A lot of people were extremely confused," Hafen said. "They thought their mail ballot was their sample ballot. It didn't have the level of information they thought it would have for a sample ballot and so, I was like, we've got to fix this."
And Hafen isn't alone. Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager, a Democrat, has signed on to co-sponsor the bill, and suggested an amendment: Mailing sample ballots right around the fifth Monday before the election.
Hafen called the idea "common sense," and Yeager's support shows the idea is bipartisan, and much more likely to pass, not only in the Assembly, but also the state Senate.
The bill has until April 11 to pass out of committee and head to the Assembly floor.
