Early voting begins Saturday

Early in-person voting starts Saturday in Douglas County, but with mail-in ballots arriving the 2022 Primary Election is officially underway.
The early polls open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Douglas County Community & Senior Center’s North Room Saturday and June 4, and will continue after Memorial Day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday through June 10.
For two of three local races on the ballot, this is make-or-break time.
Douglas County District 4 Commissioner Wes Rice is facing challenges from Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District trustee Janet Murphy and Kingsbury General Improvement District Trustee Natalie Yanish.
Douglas County’s chief elections officer, Clerk-Treasurer Amy Burgans is facing a challenge from Heather MacDonnell.
All five candidates are Republicans and their fates will be decided in a primary race that should see a huge turnout after the battle royale that has been the race for governor.
Due to Nevada’s closed primary, only Republicans get to cast a ballot in those races, but all Douglas residents will get to vote in the District 7 nonpartisan school board race.
That race has Nicholas Brashears, Dave Burns and Roberta Butterfield running to fill Ross Chichester’s Area 7 school board seat. Chichester term-limited out after serving 12 years on the board. Unless one of the candidates receives 50 percent plus one of the vote, the top two will go on to the general election in November.
Further up the ballot, Assembly members Dr. Robin Titus, R-Wellington, and Jim Wheeler, R-Gardnerville, squaring off to fill Sen. James Settelmeyer’s seat.
In what The R-C has dubbed the Lyon-Douglas Debate, Lyon County Commissioner Ken Gray and Gardnerville resident Blayne Osborn are running for Wheeler’s District 39 Assembly seat.
Both races have seen crisscrossing endorsements, with Osborn being endorsed by Titus and Gray receiving Wheeler’s blessing.
Douglas County residents appear near the top of the ballot, as well, with Dr. Fred Simon vying with 14 other candidates for governor and Douglas County Commissioner Danny Tarkanian challenging Rep. Mark Amodei.
According to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, there are 20,867 active Republican voters in Douglas County, accounting for almost 51 percent of the electorate. There are 8,319 registered Democrats in the county, trailing the 8,944 nonpartisan voters in the county.
School board is the only local race on all voters’ ballots. Former Douglas County Democratic Chairperson Kimi Cole is running for lieutenant governor against appointee Lisa Cano Burkhead, Eva Chase and Debra March.
Election Day coincides with Flag Day, June 14. Early in-person voting will wrap up the week before.
For more information, visit govotedouglas.com or the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office at www.nvsos.gov/sos/elections

To learn more about candidates from the 2022 Spring Town Hall Debate, go here and scroll down to watch the debates via race.