Last Saturday a panicked man was turned away from a Republican precinct meeting.
Why? The voter roll showed him to be “NP” (no party, aka non-party).
Turns out he visited the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to renew his driver’s license and unbeknownst to him, this triggered re-registration from Republican to “NP”.
My wife, Lorrie, who is Chair of Lyon Co. Republican Central Committee, recently went to the DMV to conduct businesses. Proactively she told the clerk “DO NOT change my voting registration.” The clerk said the change was automatic.
Indeed, DMV changed Lorrie to “NP.” Fortunately, our county clerk caught the error and did not remove her from the Republican party. All because my wife went in to DMV to change the title on a utility trailer.
Here is how it works in Nevada:
- You walk into the DMV as a Republican.
- You conduct DMV related business such as registering a vehicle, transferring a title, buying a vanity plate, obtaining or renewing a driver’s license or ID, or submitting a change of address.
- Without notice or consent, your information is submitted via the Automated Voter Registration (AVR) system directly to the Secretary of State (SOS).
- Though you did not request nor authorized the SOS to modify your voter registration, never-the-less the SOS forwards your information to your county clerk stating that you are registering to vote as an “NP.”
- If the county clerk does not catch and correct the error, within a few days you are no longer Republican–and you don’t even know this happened.
- The county clerk is supposed to send you correspondence asking your party preference. If for some reason you don’t receive the letter, or respond, then you are no longer Republican.
The same process can strip party affiliation for any other political party.
I corresponded with the DMV Public Affairs Officer (PAO) confirmed that the process described above is correct. She confirmed and added:
· “Patrons are not given the option to opt out of AVR.”
· “All patrons put into AVR are entered as ‘no party’ .”
Reportedly Clark and Washoe counties use an automated process to update voter registration when they receive AVR’s from SOS.
I emailed the voter registration office in both counties, asking how they catch and prevent re-registration from an affiliated party to “NP”. Neither county responded.
One wonders–how many Republicans in those left-leaning counties have been stripped of party affiliation?
One rural county clerk admitted missing “a few hundred” re-registrations to “NP”. Multiple rural clerks said they manually check AVR’s against existing voter registration, in order to (hopefully) catch and prevent party affiliation being stripped away and replaced with “NP.”
The man described in the first paragraph wasn’t so lucky. Errors occur.
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (aka “motor voter”) into law. It requires States to offer voter registration at motor vehicle and other local government offices.
The Nevada DMV has taken motor voter to a new level by amputating notice, consent, removing the opt-out option, and classifying everyone as “NP.” What can a Republican do to insure they remain a registered Republican?
ALL REPUBLICANS SHOULD CHECK THEIR VOTER REGISTRATION NOW, AND ALSO 10 DAYS AFTER EACH VISIT TO THE DMV.
- Go to: https://registertovote.nv.gov.
- Check your registration status.
- Update your party affiliation if it was changed.
- (You can also use this link to register new Republican voters. It takes three minutes).
Another remedy is same day voter registration. Take your Nevada driver’s license or ID card to a polling location. If you were changed to “NP”, you can register Republican on the spot and vote the Republican ballot. This can be done at primary or general elections.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
