Nevada bill would require candidates to be registered voters in the districts they seek; secretary of state data request timeline added

Assemblyman Steve Yeager introduced Assembly Bill 491, proposing changes to Nevada election law that would require candidates for state, county, city and township offices to be registered to vote in the jurisdiction they seek to represent and would make declarations of candidacy, residency and eligibility public records.

Yeager told the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee the bill is “more of a cleanup bill than anything,” aimed at technical changes to help transparency and information flow. He said the bill would not apply retroactively to officeholders serving on Oct. 1, 2025, and would apply to people who file declarations of candidacy after that date.

The measure would add an attestation under penalty of perjury to the forms used when filing declarations of candidacy and require filing officers to make those declarations available electronically. A conceptual amendment to the bill would impose a two-working-day response requirement for city and county clerks when the Secretary of State requests data “relating to the current election.” Chief Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel De Cara told the committee the narrower, current-election scope is intended to prevent abuse of the requirement and reduce burdens on clerks.

Supporters, including Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, said the registration requirement would let registrars immediately check a candidate’s voter registration on-site and could reduce residency challenges. Bradley Schrager, who testified for the proponents, said the change provides “an immediate check upon the eligibility of candidates” by allowing registrars to verify registrations promptly.

Opponents and some county officials raised concerns about shifting authority toward the Secretary of State and the operational burden on clerks. Joshua Skaggs, legislative affairs director for the Nevada Republican Party, suggested the “current-election” scope should specify business days rather than calendar days and said he was wary of additional state control over locally elected clerks. Several county representatives who testified in neutral said recent amendments and the conceptual change make the proposal more workable.

The committee heard no final vote on the bill during the hearing; the measure proceeded as a public hearing where proponents, county officials and party representatives discussed implementation details.

Why it matters: The bill would change who can qualify as a candidate in Nevada by adding voter registration as a statutory requirement in the jurisdiction of candidacy, increase public access to filing documents and set statutory time frames for information sharing between local clerks and the Secretary of State. Those changes affect candidate verification, public transparency and election administration workload.

Details to watch: the effective date language (exemption for incumbents on Oct. 1, 2025), the form attestation language under penalty of perjury, whether the clerk response deadline remains “two working days” or is altered to business days, and whether counties require further implementation funding or flexibility.

Speakers quoted in this article are identified from the hearing record and include Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (presenter), Gabriel De Cara (Chief Deputy Secretary of State), Bradley Schrager (presenter/attorney) and Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (support).