The Case for Public Civics Education • Nevada Current

When exit poll results hit the news each morning, some of us worry about voters who aren't engaged and therefore aren't represented in those numbers. For me, it's more than the concern about whether they'll vote, it's the reason they might not vote that's troubling. Nevada is a very fluid state, with lots of people moving to each month, meaning more voters are added to the voter rolls each election cycle. These voters aren't native eighteen-year-olds, so Nevada civics knowledge isn't ingrained in their minds. The problem isn't their status as newcomers, but rather that civics knowledge doesn't easily transfer across state lines. The U.S. Constitution gives states the authority to conduct elections differently and handle government individually, so the only way to close that gap is to invest in public civics education.

Kudos to Nevada for making voter registration so easy, but where exactly are new voters supposed to find reliable and complete information about Nevada's election rules and elected offices? Do you know where to find reliable information about our judge elections? And what about school board members? And how do you find out if a candidate is from your district and will represent you? Newcomers need to know that our local reporters and news organizations publish voter guides and candidate profiles. I'm very concerned about the nonpartisan elections being ignored on the lower ballots, so it's very helpful that Nevada Current focuses on these races. If you are wondering, “What is a nonpartisan race?”, be sure to check Nevada Current regularly to answer these kinds of questions.

I founded my voter education and civic engagement nonprofit, Vote Nevada, several years ago. Community members who feel civically lost and in need of help can reach out to me for help becoming confident Nevada voters. As an educator, I also know that frustrated people often give up rather than seek answers and information. So if we want all eligible voters to be registered and engaged, we need a concrete plan to reduce voter frustration.

Why is this suddenly urgent? We face a terrible dilemma for good reason: There are many more new voters. In 2019, Nevada began automatic voter registration at the DMV, so when a person applies for a driver's license or ID, they can automatically register, too. When the law passed, we worried about how to assign party affiliation, but didn't put enough thought into how to prepare newly registered voters to vote. The assumption was that someone else would handle that part of the process. But who? A blue postcard lands in those voters' mailboxes informing them of their new voting status. But questions about voting won't be answered until the sample ballot arrives late in the election cycle. The sample ballot is limited, however.

As a professor at the College of Southern Nevada, many of my courses are online, so I learned years ago that despite the assumption that younger students are digital natives, every student needs instruction on how to successfully take an online course. So in all of my courses, the first thing my students see is: Welcome! Here's what you need to do to be a successful student. If you have any questions, please ask.

Every new voter needs the same message: Welcome! Here's what you need to do to be a successful voter. If you have any questions, you can ask them here.

Voters would benefit from a central repository of election and government information, which would ease the burden on our election officials. Electronic election preparation information can also be easily broken into social media content. Some information defines what elected officials are doing, while other materials direct voters to reliable election and voter resources with up-to-date information on procedures and elections. Be sure to bookmark this news section.

I'm not a person who sees a problem, points to a solution, and then waits for someone else to act. I'm acting now. I hope elected officials focus on civic education in legislation, but until then, I'm willing to do my part. Through Vote Nevada, I'm working with students and community volunteers to break down our election processes and government systems into bite-sized videos. All social media platforms accept ADA compliant videos, so we'll start there.

The first is the mail-in voting process. Currently, thousands of mail-in ballots are thrown out every election because of signature issues. This is unacceptable, but it keeps happening, so we need to do something about it. The solution is pretty simple, but the information needs to be distributed to all mail-in voters; time is of the essence. Now that we've released these videos, we need help spreading the good news. If you have just a few minutes, please subscribe to the Vote Nevada YouTube channel to support our efforts.

If you are interested in creating public civic education videos to develop confident voters, please email [email protected].