Below the Governor's Race: Nevada Voters Also Fill Five Statewide Offices, Five Regents Seats and the Whole Assembly on Tuesday
The governor's race gets the headlines, but Tuesday's Nevada ballot runs much deeper: lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, controller and treasurer, five Board of Regents seats, 11 of 21 state Senate seats and all 42 Assembly seats — 35 positions in all, 19 of them unopposed.
Tuesday's ballot is longer than the marquee race on top of it. Beyond governor, Nevada voters will elect the state's lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, controller and state treasurer, and fill five seats on the State Board of Regents, according to the election previews read by the desk. Add the Legislature — 11 of the 21 state Senate seats and all 42 Assembly seats are up this year — and the federal and judicial contests below them, and the Nevada Sagebrush's count puts 35 positions on the ballot in all.
Nineteen of those candidates are running unopposed, per the Sagebrush guide — which makes the contested down-ballot races the ones that quietly decide how the state actually runs. The secretary of state administers the elections themselves; the attorney general is the office the current Democratic governor candidate, Aaron Ford, is leaving to run; the controller and treasurer handle the state's books and cash. The Associated Press plans to report results and declare winners in all five statewide offices, the statewide ballot measures, and the state Senate and Assembly seats, according to its election-night guide.
For Clark County voters, the practical point is time. A ballot with 35 positions, two constitutional questions and a page of judicial races takes longer to complete than a top-of-ticket vote, and Tuesday's vote centers run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. with anyone in line at close still able to vote. The governor's race will decide who holds the veto pen in Carson City; the races underneath it decide almost everyone who will hand him the bills.
