Voter ID, public money for private schools, top Lombardo’s legislative agenda

Voters in Nevada will have to bring ID to the polls in order to cast a ballot, and they’ll no longer receive a mail-in ballot without requesting it, if Gov. Joe Lombardo has his way, according to Lombardo’s Chief of Staff Ben Kieckhefer, who laid out the executive branch’s legislative agenda Wednesday for reporters in Carson City. Lombardo was in Las Vegas, according to Kieckhefer.  

“Anyone who wants or needs a mail-in ballot should have the right to request and receive one; however, they should not be sent out to every registered voter in the state,” says a handout from the governor’s spokesperson. 

Kieckhefer said ending the “Covid-era” practice of sending mail-in ballots to all registered voters would save the state money, but Lombardo’s office would not say how much will be saved or how much it will cost to have election personnel respond to individual requests for ballots. 

Voters would be required to notate a driver’s license number or last four of their Social Security number on a mail-in ballot. 

The Department of Motor Vehicles would be required to provide identification for voters who lack it. Senate Bill 405 would also require mail-in ballots be received by the time polls close on Election Day, rather than 5pm four days after the election.,

Ballot harvesting, the practice of collecting and turning in ballots for other voters, would be criminalized in some circumstances under the legislation

Scholarships for private schools 

Assembly Bill 400 would increase the amount of tuition assistance available to families of private school students tenfold, from the current $50 million a biennium to $500 million, with biennial increases after that. The assistance would be available to families earning 500% of the poverty level, up from 300% currently. 

The bill allows for charter schools to be developed in response to overcrowding, allows municipalities to sponsor charter schools, and permits the schools to apply for state-funded bus service. 

School safety

Lombardo’s Safer and Supportive Schools Act seeks to resolve disciplinary issues contributing to what Lombardo says is a 46% increase in violent incidents in Las Vegas schools since 2019.

Assembly Bill 330 would eliminate a requirement that schools cannot remove, suspend, or expel students without having a plan in place for restorative justice, an alternative to punishment-based discipline intended to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. 

Asked whether the governor is taking any actions to make schools less vulnerable to mass shootings, Kieckhefer said Lombardo’s budget invests in mental health options. 

Tough on crime

Lombardo’s other priorities include Senate Bill 412, a bill that would eliminate some of the criminal justice reforms enacted in 2019 by lawmakers, such as prohibiting parolees from being sent back to prison for technical violations. The measure allows judges discretion to impose tougher sanctions for parole and probation violations. 

“There’s data that tracks increases in crime since the bill passed,” Kieckhefer said, adding the governor’s office would present it later in a legislative hearing. 

Lombardo’s Crime Reduction Act would also make the possession of fentanyl a Class B felony with a mandatory one to six year sentence, and would prohibit a court from granting probation or suspended sentence. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to experts.

Opioid use generally goes untreated in the criminal justice system and use often resumes after release, according to the National Institutes of Health. 

Lombardo’s success at getting his way with Nevada’s legislative branch remains to be seen. 

Democrats control both the Assembly and Senate.