Nevada interim elections committee opens 2026 work with focus on staffing, accessibility and AI rules
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Summary
The joint interim committee on legislative operations and elections opened the 2025–26 interim with briefings showing local election offices face workforce and budget pressures, while state and county officials outlined accessibility, language access, ballot procedures and state options for AI/deepfake policy.
The joint interim standing committee on legislative operations and elections met on Feb. 21 to begin its 2025–2026 interim, hearing expert briefings and county reports that set priorities for election-related legislation heading into 2026.
Nonpartisan staff opened the meeting with procedural guidance and a committee brief that flags subjects members may pursue, including requests for bill draft requests (BDRs) for the 2027 session. Presenters then highlighted several recurring themes — workforce strain at local election offices, costs and infrastructure needs for accessible voting, a slate of upcoming legal questions about deepfakes and generative AI, and technical changes to mail-ballot practices.
The committee heard a national survey overview from Paul Manson of the Elections and Voting Information Center, who cited high turnover risk (about 40% of local election office heads are eligible to retire) and stressed staffing, training and recordkeeping burdens as top concerns. County registrars described concrete accessibility work: Washoe County is implementing a Department of Justice settlement and testing a mobile curbside voting cart; Clark County reported multilingual materials, expanded ASL support and formal site remediation plans. The National Conference of State Legislatures outlined state approaches to policing AI-generated campaign material, noting most states require disclosures while a few impose near-election prohibitions, and that recent court rulings have undone some statutes.
Committee members exchanged questions with presenters on whether recent Nevada pay changes for county employees are improving retention, how states are responding to court challenges to deepfake laws, where funding for accessibility projects will come from, and contingency planning around pending U.S. Supreme Court litigation over mail ballots arriving after Election Day.
The meeting closed with public comment urging the committee to address poll-observer intimidation and raising concerns about third-party vendor access to voter rolls. Chair Cecilia Gonzales said materials will be archived and the next meeting is set for April 17.
The committee’s briefing package and slides were posted for members and the public; staff noted links to updated “How to Vote” materials and the Aurora candidate filing portal are available on the Nevada Secretary of State’s website.