LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Clark County says the only candidates on the presidential preference primary are those that filed with the Secretary of State’s office.
That has a lot of you at home concerned – calling the FOX5 newsroom asking why their candidates, Donald Trump and Ron Desantis, aren’t on the ballot.
FOX5′s John Huck sits down with UNLV political science professor Daniel Lee to discuss the differences between the two types of elections being held in Nevada next month.
JOHN HUCK: “Let’s get right to the heart of the matter, we are getting a lot of phone calls from people. They got the NV sample ballot for the primary, their concerned that their candidate, I would assume former President Trump or Ron DeSantis is not on that ballot so can you tell us what’s going on?”
PROFESSOR LEE: “The Republican party in Nevada decided to use a Caucus, instead of the results of the presidential primary, to allocate their delegates. So, you don’t see Trump on the primary ballot because he’s running in the Caucus. So, to vote for Trump or DeSantis you need to go to the Republican Caucus to cast your vote.”
JOHN HUCK: “For the delegate count, it’s only going to come from the Caucus right?”
PROFESSOR LEE: “Right, so Nikki Haley is running in the primary, so she can’t win any delegates. Only Trump and DeSantis can win delegates. The primary election will be totally ignored by the state party and they’re only going to look at the results of the Caucus.”
JOHN HUCK: “Why would Nikki Haley opt for a primary when all the delegates are decided by the Caucus?”
PROFESSOR LEE: “That’s a good question. Why is NV, why do we get attention? We don’t have a lot of delegates. You try to show you have support among voters to build momentum. She decided to go the primary route and get primary voters to support her. So even though she’s not going to win delegates, showing that she still has supporters can pay off for her, she wants to build momentum. 2:54
JOHN HUCK: “This confusion it seems could’ve been avoided if they had just stuck with a primary or just a caucus but not both, so how did we get to this point?”
PROFESSOR LEE: “The NV Republican party was adamant about taking the Caucus route and the argument they gave was election integrity is a big issue for the Republican Party. The big difference between a primary and a Caucus is the Caucus is run by the party, they can do whatever they want, in how they organize it. So, for them, there’s no early voting, there’s no same-day registration, and they’re requiring voter ID. Those are things you don’t have in a primary election, but these are aspects of electoral reform that some Republicans like.”
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