As We See It: Safeguarding our elections

As we prepare to publish, the Nevada Legislature is meeting in special session, mostly to consider how to fund a necessarily expanding state budget with dwindling revenues. We wish them well. There are a few obvious fixes that must be done.

A safe and secure election must be held this fall. It’s obvious that we need to do more vote-by-mail. With a Republican Secretary of State arguing she doesn’t have the necessary $2 to $3 million in funds it would take for a mostly mail-in ballot, the Legislature needs to remedy this. It’s not only about safety during the COVID-19 crisis, it’s also about the right to vote.

Oddly enough, the Trump administration rails against mail in voting, mostly to cast suspicion on the integrity of an election he believes he will lose. In reality, many of his supporters are older Americans who will fear going in person to vote. While the GOP has famously tried to suppress votes in minority and low-income communities, believing those areas will vote for Democrats. With COVID-19, they might actually be suppressing folks who tend to vote more Republican.

We don’t care who you’re going to vote for. We believe everyone should be able to exercise their right to vote and be able to vote safely.

With the Trump administration apparently trying to handicap the U.S. Postal Service, just to make it more difficult to get votes delivered in time, our Legislature needs to mandate that the Secretary of State and county election bureaus, make drop-off voting convenient. Doing so, would save the counties tens of thousands of dollars in postage, plus negate some of the “Don’s” shenanigans with the USPS.

The best thing each of our readers can do at the moment, is be sure you are registered to vote. Make sure you’re registered at the correct address. You can also request to vote by mail (absentee ballot). The easiest way to do this is online. You can use the Nevada Secretary of State’s website, but even easier is to visit https://vote.org

The Las Vegas Spectrum will be producing a voter guide for the general election. We always have easy methods for our readers to share both this magazine and our voter guide via email and social media. If you or an organization you belong to would like to help, please contact the Spectrum. Together, we can effectively get out the vote, but you’ll also help share news and events in the LGBTQIA+ community.

100% digitial this month

If you’re reading this editorial, you’re doing it online. Sadly, due to COVID-19 shutdowns, which have adversely affected nearly every business in the country, it has affected our advertising revenue. As a result, we don’t have the funds to print for August, nor do we have the funds to pay the postage bill.

If you’re looking at the PDF version of our magazine, you’ll notice plenty of ads. Some are repeats, while some are ads scheduled to run in our September issue. None of them are producing revenue for us this month but that was our choice, not theirs.

Please support our advertisers. They’re the ones who will help us print in the next few critical months before the general election. Have an air conditioner on the fritz, plumbing or electrical issues? Please call our friends at ACR Mechanical. Need insurance, legal assistance, a new/used car, cannabis, flowers, a massage, entertainment, real estate or even funeral services? It may not seem like much, but it would really help if you use our advertisers and make sure the decision makers at those businesses know you’re patronizing their firm because of their Spectrum ads. It keeps them supporting us, pays our writers and keeps us publishing.