Assembly committee advances a suite of election-related bills and two joint resolutions on deadline day

The Assembly Committee on Legislative and Operations advanced more than a half-dozen election-related measures and two joint resolutions during a work session held on deadline day, moving most bills to the next steps in the legislative process.

Haley Pearl, committee policy analyst with the nonpartisan Legislative Counsel Bureau, summarized each measure and its committee amendments before members voted to amend and advance the bills. The measures covered synthetic-media disclosure requirements for campaign communications, changes to campaign finance rules, language access in elections, voting administration rules for county and city clerks, apportionment counting for incarcerated people, and a requirement that county clerks maintain an online voter services portal, among other changes.

Why it matters: The package includes multiple bills that would change how elections are administered in Nevada — affecting county clerks’ duties, mail ballot procedures, campaign finance and the Secretary of State’s office — and joint resolutions that address federal policy and the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. Most measures passed the committee and will proceed for further consideration; a few drew recorded no votes from some members.

The committee considered the following measures and outcomes (motions were generally “to amend and do pass” unless noted):

Votes at a glance

- Assembly Bill 73 (sponsored on behalf of the Secretary of State): Establishes requirements for certain communications relating to an election, including revised definitions of artificial intelligence and synthetic media; removed proposed civil-penalty provisions in committee amendments, added a private cause of action for candidates when an AI-generated deep fake is used without required disclosure, and clarified limited exemptions for some media entities. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Motion moved by Vice Chair Gonzales and seconded by Assemblymember Hattie; the committee recorded the motion as carried. Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember Hibbetts.

- Assembly Bill 79 (sponsored on behalf of the Secretary of State): Revises provisions relating to campaign finance, including specifying permissible PAC expenditures, allowing campaign funds to defray ordinary and necessary expenses connected to duties as a candidate or officeholder, revising civil-penalty provisions, and changing enforcement procedures for the Secretary of State. A committee amendment deleted several sections and clarified administrative enforcement tools. Motion to amend and do pass carried; motion moved by Vice Chair Gonzales and seconded by Assemblymember Hattie. Recorded no votes were entered for Assemblymember Hibbetts, Assemblymember Edgeworth and one member listed as "**** Bed." Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember Nadip.

- Assembly Bill 92 (sponsors: Assemblymembers Dickman, Gray, DeLong, O'Neil; Senator Titus): Requires public buildings to make rooms available without charge to state or county central committees of major political parties, with an amendment excluding Nevada System of Higher Education buildings from that requirement. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember **** Bed.

- Assembly Bill 367 (sponsored on behalf of the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections): Rewrites language-access provisions for elections to codify an existing telephone interpretation service (more than 200 languages and ASL), require minimum translation of the Secretary of State website into the seven most common Nevada languages plus ASL, authorize the use of personal devices inside polling places for interpretation access for deaf and hard-of-hearing voters, and fund a language access coordinator position in the Secretary of State’s office. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Floor statement assigned to Vice Chair Gonzales.

- Assembly Bill 477: Revises how incarcerated people are counted for apportionment of legislative, congressional and Board of Regents districts. No amendments were offered; motion to do pass carried. Floor statement assigned to Majority Leader Hategui.

- Assembly Bill 491: Makes multiple changes relating to elections, including timelines for county and city clerks to respond to Secretary of State requests (committee amendment replaced a 48-hour deadline with “end of the second calendar day” and added language about estimated availability of requested data). Motion to amend and do pass carried. Some members signaled they would cast committee votes to advance the bills while reserving their floor votes pending further changes requested by county clerks. Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember Moore.

- Assembly Bill 496: Requires county clerks to post certain voter and ballot information online on a daily schedule during the relevant election period, including lists of ballots sent to cure and lists of cured ballots, and requires changes to mail ballot envelope information. Committee amendment adjusted posting times and data elements. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember Monroe Moreno.

- Assembly Bill 497: Revises campaign finance provisions governing PACs and the disposition of unspent contributions by defeated candidates and former public officers; committee amendment set a 4-year period and clarified when the clock begins. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Floor statement assigned to Assemblymember Miller.

- Assembly Bill 499: Requires county clerks to establish an online voter services portal, modifies the DMV data provided to clerks (removing birthplace/height/weight/photo), requires QR codes linking to the portal, and requires clerks to provide telephone access during signature-curing periods. Motion to amend and do pass carried. Recorded no votes were noted during the voice vote; floor statement assigned to Vice Chair Gonzales.

- Assembly Bill 534 (sponsored on behalf of the Secretary of State): A recently heard, complex elections bill that the committee voted to move without recommendation to the fiscal committee so work could continue while it awaits a fiscal hearing. Motion to move without recommendation carried. Motion moved by Vice Chair Gonzales and seconded by Assemblymember Monroe Moreno.

- Assembly Joint Resolution 11 (sponsored by Assemblymember Da Silva): Urges Congress to enact the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2025 (federal legislation increasing collective bargaining protections). Motion to do pass carried; floor statement assigned to Assemblymember De Silva. Recorded no votes were entered for several members; the record shows the motion carried.

- Assembly Joint Resolution 14 (sponsors include Assemblymembers Yeager, Monroe Moreno, Miller, Howtegui, Backus, and Senator Scheibel et al.): Condemns the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including the assault on law enforcement officers, and denounces the use of presidential pardons and commutations to absolve participants in the riot. Committee amendment added a cosponsor. Motion to amend and do pass carried; several members recorded no votes. The chair signed the floor statement for the resolution.

Procedure and next steps

Most motions were moved by Vice Chair Gonzales with seconding sponsors frequently listed as Assemblymember Hattie or the majority leader; committee staff repeatedly read amendments into the record and members approved the committee amendments before voting to advance the bills. Several committee members said they would vote to advance measures out of committee to allow further work on the floor or in subsequent committees, while reserving the right to change their votes later depending on final amendments and feedback from county clerks.

Committee staff and members closed the work session without public callers during the allotted public-comment period. The committee chair thanked staff and adjourned the meeting.

For each bill listed above, committee staff recorded the amendment summaries, sponsor lists and assignment of floor statements as part of the official committee record.