Assemblywoman Robin Titus addresses voting and redistricting concerns at the January meeting of the Fernley Republican Women.
FERNLEY — Assemblywoman Robin Titus, who represents most of Lyon and all of Churchill counties, recently addressed voting and redistricting at the January meeting of the Fernley Republican Women.
Titus, who was first elected to District 38 in 2014, has announced she will be a candidate for State Senate District 17 once filing opens in March. Current State Sen. James Settelmeyer, R-Douglas, is termed out.
With both local and state races attracting potential candidates, Titus said a number of strong GOP candidates have expressed interest in running for office. She also envisions another Red Wave similar to 2014 when Republicans captured most of the major offices in the state.
“The Republicans showed up, and the Democrats didn’t,” she said.
Titus discussed voter integrity and her meetings with the Secretary of State’s office, which runs the elections. She talked about a glitch in the how the Department of Motor Vehicles registers voters at the same time they procure their current registration. Titus said if registrants didn’t indicate a particular party, then the registration automatically defaulted to nonpartisan. She said that affected 46,000 voters.
“You can’t vote in the primary unless you’re a Republican or Democrat,” she said, adding voters should check their registration if they don’t receive a sample ballot in the mail.
Titus also said Clark County uses as machine to verify signatures, while the 16 other counties use visual verification.
The Smith Valley physician presented an overview on the difference between active and inactive voters before taking questions.
“An active voter is somebody registered to vote, but their mail was never returned (to the county clerk’s office),” Titus said.
She told the FRW and their guests that when a resident receives official mail, then the resident should not throw away the particular mail but return it to the clerk’s office.
“No matter what we do, it takes four years to get them off the voter rolls,” she said. “That’s the law.”
In looking at the next election cycle for registered voters, she said a voter can go online and opt out of receiving a ballot by mail. By not mailing ballots, Titus said the clerk’s office saves money from not having to buy postage.
Titus said redistricting, which identifies the boundaries for state and congressional district representation, were drawn by the Assembly and Senate, both controlled by Democrats. The assemblywoman said redistricting has wiped out close races for office. She feels redistricting has disenfranchised many voters, while splitting several rural counties such as Elko and Nye.
She said Republicans have filed a lawsuit in district court to protest the split communities. At one time, the Legislature was looking at splitting Smith Valley from the rest of Lyon County until Titus pushed back. She said District 38 encompasses either a portion or all of five counties: Lyon, Churchill, Nye, Mineral and Esmeralda.
