Fact-checking commercials for and against Question 3 on ranked choice voting in Nevada

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — Campaign commercials are filling up the airwaves as the 2024 election season enters the final stretch.If something is airing on the News 4-Fox 11 airwaves, we want to make sure viewers have the full context — including if spots are misleading or have false claims.

Last month, we launched a weekly fact-checking segment where we explain the claims made in campaign commercials and add context to give viewers the full picture of a candidate's claims or votes.

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This week, we're examining commercials both for and against Question 3 — the ballot measure that would bring ranked choice voting and open primaries to Nevada.

The measure already passed in 2022 and would become part of the Nevada Constitution if it were to pass in the 2024 election. Click here to watch a full video explaining the Question 3 initiative.

Yes on 3 - Change

The Yes on 3 campaign is running a 30-second spot that hones in on the open primaries aspect of Question 3, claiming that nearly 1 million independent voters are locked out of the primary under Nevada's closed primary system.

"Right now, nearly 1 million independent voters are locked out from Nevada's closed primary, prohibited from voting in a taxpayer-funded election. That's veterans and teachers, firefighters and hospitality workers all excluded from having a say," the narrator says.

If you add up all of Nevada's nonpartisan voters as well as third party voters, including Libertarians, Independent Americans and others, that is about 1 million people, according to the July 2024 registration statistics from the Secretary of State's office.

To be sure, members of third parties are allowed to participate in partisan primaries if multiple candidates are running for that party's nomination. But more often than not, there is only 1 candidate running and that person automatically advances to the general election.

As for nonpartisan voters, now the largest segment of the Nevada electorate, they are only allowed to participate in nonpartisan contests. Partisan races, including for Congress, governor, all other statewide offices and Nevada legislature, are all limited to registered voters in their party. This measure would open up primaries for all of those races, but the presidential preference primary would remain closed to registered members of each party.

So, nonpartisan voters are not prohibited from voting in primaries altogether, but they are limited to participating in nonpartisan contests.

Nevada does allow nonpartisan voters to change their party affiliation on the same day, including on Election Day, but most people don't bother to change parties simply to vote in a primary. Many voters don't bother to vote or cast their limited ballot with only a handful of local races.

WATCH our fact-check of the Yes on 3 ad here:

Fair Government Nevada - How Nevada Votes

Unlike the Yes on 3 campaign's commercial focusing on open primaries, Fair Government Nevada, a political action committee formed to oppose Question 3, has honed in on the ranked choice voting aspect of the measure.

A 30-second spot, called 'How Nevada Votes,' claims the measure would be complicated, chaotic and result in thousands of ballots going uncounted.

"It requires you take the time to rank 5 candidates and could throw out your vote if your top choice doesn't make the cut. In other states that have tried this, it caused chaos. Ten times as many ballots are thrown out because of errors," the narrator states.

Voters are not required to rank all 5 candidates under ranked choice voting but it behooves them to rank at least a few. You can rank only one candidate if you so choose or any number of candidates up to 5.

However, voters are incentivized to pick more candidates because if the voter's first-choice candidate is eliminated in the first round of counting, election officials then count that voter's second-choice candidate in the second round of voting.

If people only select one candidate and that person doesn't make the first cut, they do not have a say in the second round of voting.

As for the claim that more than 10 times as many ballots are thrown out under ranked choice voting, the commercial is referencing a 2023 study from the University of Pennsylvania that examined ranked choice voting in Alaska, Maine, San Francisco and New York City, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"It found that in a typical ranked choice race, nearly 1 in 20 voters improperly marked their ballots in at least one way," the article states. About .3% of ballots were rejected in the first round of voting and about .5% of ballots were rejected in the final round, researchers found.

That rejection rate is nearly 10 times higher than the ballot rejection rate in standard races, according to the study. The most common mistake voters make is overvoting, when a voter selects more than one candidate for the same ranking.

WATCH our fact-check of the Fair Government Nevada ad here:

Do you have a campaign commercial or mailer you'd like us to fact-check? Email news @mynews4.com and put fact-check in the subject line.

Email reporter Ben Margiott at bjmargiott@sbgtv.com. Follow @BenMargiott on X and Ben Margiott KRNV on Facebook.