Beyond the bright lights of Las Vegas and the majesty of the Sierra Nevada mountains, there is an expansive desert that’s home to approximately 11 percent of the state’s population, dotted throughout the landscape. What many Nevadans may not consider about our rural communities are the potential barriers they face when it comes to everyday aspects of civic life, such as voting. 

This legislative session, Nevada continued to uphold its legacy of protecting voters’ access to the polls. With the passage of critical language access improvements and improvements for Indigenous voters, legislators have demonstrated a commitment to continuing to foster a healthy democratic system despite increasing federal headwinds to the contrary. 

However, to ensure equitable access to the ballot box for Nevadans, we must work to put these laws into action. One of the key strengths — and challenges — for our state is its geographic diversity. 

Whether it's access to fewer resources or simply the distance required to travel to cast a ballot, clerks and voters in rural and tribal counties face unique challenges. For instance, most rural counties have fewer than five polling places, including on Election Day and during early voting. A county clerk recently told me that voters in Moundhouse have to travel one hour to vote in Yerington if they want to vote in person. That’s a hurdle many voters in Clark or Washoe counties, with access to vote centers across their counties, never have to think about.

To help bridge that gap, my team and I at All Voting is Local Nevada road-tripped across the state to talk with rural county clerks about recent election changes passed during the legislative session and learn about the challenges they face administering elections in their communities. One solution many rural voters rely on is voting by mail, but long distances to polling places or delays in mail service are just two barriers for these communities. 

Fortunately, recent election laws aimed at improving voter access passed in Carson City help rural Nevada, too. New laws, such as SB421, which requires county clerks to recruit poll workers for tribal voting locations and provide accessible training options for tribal poll workers, are critical to ensure that tribal voters have equitable access to the ballot. While these strides have been key in tribal voter turnout, not every reservation-based polling place is open during the entire in-person voting period, with many tribal voters relying on voting by mail. 

AB367, another law passed this session, codified the secretary of state’s existing language access hotline into state law, ensuring this critical service will be protected for years to come. The hotline offers services in more than 200 languages, as well as American Sign Language, in addition to translating all voting materials on the secretary of state’s website into the seven most common languages. This law will also allow voters with disabilities to use devices at polling places, which will help thousands of voters with disabilities across the state access the ballot. 

This new law is another commonsense way to ensure that Nevada’s diverse population has equitable access to the ballot. Keeping the lines of communication open between voting rights experts and rural clerks is an integral part of ensuring our diverse state’s voters are equitably served in something as critical as a person’s right to vote.

Rural clerks provide critical infrastructure to a thriving democracy in Nevada, and we are grateful for their efforts to protect Nevadans’ constitutional right to vote. As we continue to see threats to that right at the federal level, we hope that partnerships such as these will allow us to honor and uphold Nevada’s history of fostering an inclusive democracy. 

Kerry Durmick is the Nevada state director of All Voting is Local, a nonpartisan organization that works for free and fair elections at the state and local level.