Republicans want to change Nevada’s election laws. But first, they must embrace them.

Republicans haven’t won a presidential election in Nevada in 20 years, which Republican leaders blame in recent years on the state’s vote-by-mail laws.

But to get a chance to change those laws, Republicans must first win enough seats to prevent a Democratic supermajority in the Legislature — by embracing the very type of voting they’ve said can’t be trusted.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley outlined the party’s plans to clench victories for both former President Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ballot in 2024 to a group of volunteers at the Clark County Republican Party headquarters during a recent “protect the vote” event in Henderson.

“We know what to do, and we know that Nevada is really really pivotal. But how are we going to win? How are we going to get it done?” he said at the event, which kicked off with a prayer by Howell Shaw “against any scheme of the evil ones to try and steal this election again.”

The party has two core missions this election cycle, according to Whatley. One is to focus on its get-out-the-vote efforts, with a particular outreach effort to low-propensity voters and to communities of color, and to encourage early voting and voting by mail in states that have them in place, Whatley said.

The other is to “protect the ballot” by ensuring states are following their election laws that are in place, pursuing litigation if necessary (the RNC has already pursued more than 90 lawsuits in over 20 states, including Nevada) and stocking election sites with poll watchers and poll workers.

Mail ballots? ‘Absolutely’

Whatley also said he is “absolutely” embracing mail ballots, which were at the center of Nevada Republicans’ accusations of a stolen election in 2020.

“That’s the law, and we’ve got mail and voting going on here,” Whatley said. “And that’s fine, right? What we want to make sure that we do is have a secure process for it. We’re going to be paying very close attention to the processes that are put in place for it and making sure that the state and the counties are going to be following the processes the right way.”

Nevada is one of the battleground states Trump had lost to Joe Biden in 2020, and one of the states in which Trump and his allies tried to overturn the results by promoting unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and pointing to Nevada’s use of mail ballots, an increasingly popular way of voting. In the recent June primary, nearly 65 percent of voters cast their ballot by mail, up by more than 10 percentage points from the 2022 midterms.

In the 2022 midterms, candidates who heavily promoted claims of a stolen election, such as former Nevada Assemblyman Jim Marchant, lost their races. Republicans have since pivoted to focus less on claims of a stolen election and focus on election integrity measures they can take if elected.

Many want to do away with Nevada’s automatic mail ballot system, remove the law that allows voters to turn in completed mail ballots for others and implement voter ID (which could take place through a ballot question in November).

Consistent messaging?

Nevada Republicans’ touts of a stolen election in 2020 continue, however. Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, who claims Democrats stole the election from him in 2020 when he ran for the Board of Clark County Commissioners and lost by 15 votes after a recount, blamed mail ballots for his loss.

“The Democrat Party decided that the only way they could win the election is to change the election process in order to cheat,” Anthony said last week at the event. “I believe that totally.”

He falsely claimed there were “zero” investigations into election fraud and nobody was held accountable.

The Nevada Secretary of State’s office, then headed by Republican Barbara Cegavske, spent more than 100 hours investigating claims that the 2020 election was stolen but found no evidence to support claims of widespread fraud. Nevada courts dismissed lawsuits that alleged mass election fraud.

Democrats Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar and Attorney General Aaron Ford’s offices also continue to investigate and prosecute cases of election fraud.

In a press gaggle last week with Whatley and other Republican leaders, the lieutenant governor appeared out of step with Whatley over the mail ballot strategy. He said he did not think Whatley was embracing mail ballots. When Whatley replied, he absolutely is, Anthony changed his tune and said “we do have to embrace it, but we have to make sure that it is done legally and with integrity.”

Mark Robertson, a Republican candidate running against incumbent Dina Titus, said he does not think that criticizing the vote-by-mail system while encouraging Republican voters to vote by mail is inconsistent.

“Those are the laws in Nevada, and until we change those laws, we have to embrace them and use them to the advantage of our candidates,” Robertson told the Review-Journal.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.