Another federal water shortage for Lake Mead in 2024.

What that means for Nevada, plus... (Francisco Aguilar) We can have all the technology in the world.

We can have the best processes in the world.

We could have the greatest laws.

But if we don't have the human component, we're not going to have strong elections.

-Nevada Secretary of State weighs in on the upcoming election and changes designed to protect election workers and your vote.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Maria Silva, in for Amber Renee Dixon.

Thank you so much for joining us.

For the third year in a row there will be a federal water shortage for Lake Mead.

But thanks to more snow this past winter, those water cuts might look different for those who depend on Lake Mead for water.

Here to explain this is Las Vegas Review-Journal Reporter Colton Lochhead.

Thank you so much, Colton, for joining us.

(Colton Lochhead) Glad to be here.

-Before we get to these new developments, I do need to ask you why this is such an important topic for you to cover, someone who did grow up here in Las Vegas.

-You grow up with Lake Mead in under?

your backyard, for me--we used to go fishing.

Me, my dad, my brother would go fishing there, at least quite a bit during the summer.

And for me, especially now, you go to the lake and a lot of those spots just aren't even there.

They're just barren shoreline.

-As someone who also grew up here, I go out there.

I was there not too long ago at the beginning of the year for a hike.

And to look out there, to see that bathtub ring, it is disheartening to see that because it again makes us realize this is a major issue.

-Right.

I mean, that's the thing.

It's kind of the biggest reminder of what we're dealing with.

It's a huge visual of what is happening to our climate, what is happening to our water supplies here.

When you really think about the depth of it, when you actually stand next to that bathtub ring, you really see just how big it is.

-And at certain points, they are marking it.

And you go out there, like you said, and you're-- this used to be water at one point.

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

And it's, you know, it's almost like when you have a child growing up and you're marking how high they are, how tall they are, just the reverse.

-So let's talk about this latest development.

It is promising news.

But again, we can't just go out there and start celebrating just yet.

-Right.

I mean, it's very good news.

Overall in the lower basin, quite a bit more water going back to farmers, going back to cities, but we're still in a shortage.

As you mentioned, it's the shortage for a third straight year.

The first shortage was declared, first ever water shortage was declared by the federal government in 2021.

And to be in there for a third straight year represents just how dire the situation is.

Even after such an incredible winter, one of the best winters we've had in decades, we're still in a shortage.

Water is still being kind of restricted for Nevada and Arizona and Mexico.

And, you know, for the longer-term outlook, even with one good year, it's only a drop in the bucket.

It's only something that's going to keep us-- give us a little bit more time, you know, a few months, maybe a little over a year.

-And we did move from a tier two to tier one.

What does that mean for us?

-That means about 4,000 acre feet of water, which is, in the grand scheme of things-- on a normal year, we get 300,000 acre feet, so it's a little over 1% more water.

But we're still dealing with a shortage of about 25,000 acre feet down from that 300,000.

So it means a little bit more water.

So not-- but there's bigger cuts for Arizona.

And so the impact from this move from a tier two to a tier one helps them a little bit more than helps us.

-And for some of our viewers who are new to Nevada, let's talk a little bit about Lake Mead, as well as Lake Powell.

They are two of the largest reservoirs in the entire country.

Right now combined, they stand, what, at 36%?

-Combined storage, they stand at 36%.

What that means is, compared to where they would be at full capacity, their combined storage is just, you know, just over 1/3 full.

For Lake Mead it's pretty much actually exactly at 1/3 full.

As of this week, about 33%.

Lake Powell, it's about 39%.

And those are the two big-- those are the two biggest storage facilities on the Colorado River.

They supply water, and those are the two main water sources for 40 million people here in the southwest, including Mexico.

-And I do want to-- something in your article.

You have some wonderful articles on this topic that you're very passionate about on the RJ.

You did speak with Kyle Roerink, with the Great Basin Water Network.

He's the executive director.

He wrote-- you wrote, "Climate change gives us very little breathing room to refill reservoirs.

Look at the history.

Elevations are basically back to where they were two years ago.

What's it going to take to bring us back to the brink?

Not much."

This is where it was really concerning when I read this: "More pain is coming for plantlife, wildlife, and human life.

And I have little faith that water managers will take the proper long-term course to mitigate the hardship."

Again, concerning.

-Very concerning.

And there is some precedent to what Kyle was talking about there.

If you look back over the years, the projections that the, The Bureau of Reclamation issues every, you know, every month, they put them out for a 24-month outlook.

Even their lowest, their worst case scenarios that they put out has over the past few years not even come close to where we actually, how bad we actually got.

So they're even-- two years from now, we are looking to-- Lake Mead is expected to drop again, because the river is not only dealing with climate change, but it's dealing with chronic overuse from the, from the basin itself.

And what that means is that there's just more water being taken out than there is going in, even in a good water year, typically, you know, or an average water year, I should say.

And so what that means is that every year, we've seen it over the last 20-something years now, that water level just keeps dropping, keeps dropping, keeps dropping.

And even a great year like this, it just means that, like I said, maybe buys us 12 months, maybe 14 if we're lucky, 15.

But then if we go back to the normal winters that we've had, or even another stretch like we've had before this, three or four bad winters in a row, it's gonna put us into a really, really bad place.

-And Colton, let's talk about conservation efforts and what we need to do as a community as a whole.

-Right.

So Las Vegas is quite a bit ahead of the curve, especially compared to its basin, you know, its basin partners.

Las Vegas especially, we, even with these cuts we've been dealing with for the last two years, Las Vegas has come and Southern Nevada has come nowhere near using its full allotment from the Colorado River because of those conservation measures.

The stuff that's been going on for 20 years, the turf removal, the turf rebate program, and some of the stuff that's been going on now with the nonfunctional turf ban and the removal of that turf, that's another huge water savings.

Grass is the number one consumer of water here in Southern Nevada.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority put a moratorium to ban evaporative coolers, which are the second biggest-- commercial evaporator coolers I should say, which are the second biggest consumer of water.

So those two efforts are going to help reduce it.

And we're seeing it this year.

We are on pace, Nevada, to use just less than, right now, just under 200,000 acre feet of water from the Colorado River this year.

So even if we do have a 275,000, 271,000--depending on what it is over the next few years--allocation, we're going to be in pretty decent shape, especially compared to the ones that are using at or even, a lot of years, above what they're allocated.

-Promising news, but a lot of work to do.

Thank you, Colton, so much for joining us.

And where can we follow you?

-You can follow me on, I think it's formerly known as Twitter, X, @coltonlochhead.

-Coltan, thank you for what you're doing to keep us informed of this important topic.

-Thank you so much.

-Well, we move now to elections.

In the race for President, Nevada has moved from a caucus system to a primary system.

However, Nevada's Republican Party still plans to hold a caucus and announced it will do so on February 8, two days after the primary.

Amber Renee Dixon asked Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar his thoughts on this and much more, starting with what are the key differences between a primary and a caucus.

(Francisco Aguilar) Nevada is a battleground state.

We are going to determine who the next President of the United States is.

And with that understanding, it's very important to ensure that every registered eligible voter in Nevada has the opportunity to participate.

So when you start talking about primaries versus caucus, Nevada has had experience in both on both sides of the aisle.

We recently switched.

The Democrats switched from a caucus to a primary because they realized the engagement and the involvement of its party was necessary, especially going back to the fact that Nevada is a working state.

We are a 24/7 economy.

We need to ensure that we have perspective from every place in Nevada of both urban, rural, gamers, ranchers.

Everybody has a perspective in what our state needs to be.

(Amber Renee Dixon) So does a primary better fit that?

-Well, because, one, it's more inclusive.

And you have obviously every eligible Nevadan will get a mail ballot.

Every eligible Nevadan can go a week before the election day and participate in early voting.

They can vote on election day.

When you talk about a caucus, that's a different objective, and that's a different program.

That's where people come together as a community, they get into a room, and decide who the best candidate is for them to represent them.

And when you do that, not everybody is able to participate in it.

It's a very closed system.

But it may work in a certain situation.

And it's up to the parties to really determine.

It's not up to me to say this is what we need to do.

My job is to take the law that's passed by the legislature, that's signed by the governor, and execute on it.

My job as Secretary of State is to be a regulator of elections.

You know the job of a regulator.

Working with the Athletic Commission, you're a regulator, and it's your job there to ensure that the law is being followed.

-So then the primary is up to the voters.

Caucus system is a collection of voters, and they are caucusing to determine who-- -The best nominee is.

-Yes.

Okay.

-But again, it goes back to the legislature and the governor.

The legislature determined that it was in the state's best interest to hold a primary.

The parties can hold a caucus, but the state still has to run a primary system.

-Right.

Okay.

-So it's not my choice.

It's up to the parties to determine how they want to run this.

-Then let's just get right into it because you didn't say the Democrats are going to hold the primary.

You didn't say the Republicans.

And that is because the Nevada Republican Party is currently suing the state, saying we should have the choice whether to hold a primary.

-We went to hearing before a judge in Carson City, and the judge determined that it's the responsibility the Secretary of State's office to follow the legislature's intent and the law signed by the governor, and that is to hold a primary.

So because the judge has made that determination, it's not my choice to determine what's in the best interest of the Republican Party.

That's the Republican Party's decision to make.

I will work with them every way-- step of the way to ensure we're doing the best we can to educate voters on what this system looks like and what the February primary will have.

-So at this point, it's looking like the Nevada Republican Party will have a primary and a caucus.

-That's-- yes, we have to have the primary by state law.

We will have the primary.

It's up to the party whether or not they want to accept the results of the primary.

They are interested in having a caucus, which for reasons they determine are in their best interest, they will have.

-That puts Nevada Republican voters in a unique spot, though.

I mean, why would they participate in a primary when they expect that the party is going to go with the results of a caucus?

-That's a great question.

And that's my responsibility as Secretary of State is to work with the Republican Party, to work with the Republican leadership, and make sure that we're getting the messaging out there that this is what's occurring.

This is why it's occurring.

I don't think this is a situation where we pick battle lines and start to drive our own message.

This is a message where we need to come together for the best interest of Nevada as a whole.

-It's interesting because the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, Michael McDonald, told The Nevada Independent that you are phenomenal to work with.

[laughter] -Look.

You know I love speaking with Michael.

Again, you-- -Even though he's suing you?

-That's fine.

But that's part of-- I don't take it as he's suing me.

I don't take it personally.

What he's trying to do is understand what Nevada law says.

The legislature had an intent behind the law.

The governor had an intent in signing that law.

And so getting clarity about what is the perspective and what is the obligation, I think is great, because the more that a judge steps in and says, understanding the law, understanding the history, understanding what's in the best intent of the state and the voters as a whole, this is what we need to do.

They're a neutral arbitrator.

-Okay.

So back to whether a Nevada voter wants to participate in the primary, what do they need to know if they want to participate?

-I think one is, especially with election voter registration numbers coming out this week, we saw that for the first time in Nevada history, there are more nonpartisan registered voters in Nevada than the two major parties.

That's a significant milestone.

And I think that speaks volumes of where Nevadans fall on the political line.

And understanding that we have to, again, do a major voter education to say that the Presidential primary is for the two major parties.

If you're a registered Republican, you will participate in your process.

If you're a registered Democrat, you're going to participate in your process.

If you're a nonpartisan registered voter, you're unable to participate in the two party systems.

And so we need to have nonpartisan registered voters understand that if they want to participate in that primary, they need to re-register.

And the great thing about Nevada is you can do same-day voter registration.

So if you show up at a polling site, not realizing you're nonpartisan, and you want to participate, you can re-register there.

But the challenge is our poll workers work so hard to administer our process.

And if they have a large influx of people at the last minute coming to re-register to participate in the primary system, it's going to put additional work burdens on them.

So we need to educate voters now.

If you're nonpartisan and you want to participate in the Presidential primary, please re-register now.

-The Presidential primary taking place on February 6.

You brought up poll workers.

I want to talk about that because as you have mentioned in the past, there were threats to poll workers this last election cycle.

And it resulted in some of them resigning.

Have you been able to fill those positions?

-Slowly we're working, and I think what people want to know is that people care about democracy.

They compare-- they care about what we do from a voting perspective; however, they want to make sure that they're going to engage, they're going to do it in a safe manner.

Nobody wants to go work in a state of fear.

And so we've done things along the way to bring back respect and bring back the dignity of being an election worker.

I always say election workers are the heroes of our democracy.

They're giving up their time, they're giving up their efforts to make sure that we have a voting process that everybody feels confident in and will work to make sure and protect it.

We passed SB 406 to make it a felony to harass or intimidate election workers.

People shouldn't volunteer or work in an area where they feel threatened.

-How big of an issue was this?

-It's significant.

Let me give you a statistic.

In my office we had a 30% vacancy.

4 out of 13 staff there were there in 2020.

So 9 of those individuals are new.

10 out of our 17 county clerks are new since 2020.

So there is significant transition because people are afraid to work in these environments, or they just reach a threshold or like, I'm not doing this anymore.

And they move on.

And so we really need to recognize what those challenges are.

Again, we can have all the technology in the world.

We could have the best processes in the world.

We could have the greatest laws.

But if we don't have the human component, we're not going to have strong elections.

Humans are critical to our success, so we need to ensure that we're continually protecting them and we understand the challenges they face and do everything I can to give them a great environment.

-That felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, by the way.

You talked about the human element, but what about the human element in hand counting votes, your personal thoughts on the hand counting of votes?

-It goes back to my role as a regulator.

The Secretary of State is a regulator.

You're not executing elections on the ground level.

Those are made at the local level.

So the 17 County Commissioners and their elections leader are deciding what's in the best interest of their community.

Once they make the decision about what's in the best interest of their community, I need to make sure that the law is there for them to operate with it.

We can't have diverging opinions or divergent ideas once an idea is implemented.

When it goes to Nye County determining that they wanted to do, initially, hand counting, they came to the Secretary of State's office and said, this is what we'd like to do in our community.

Great.

If you're going to do that, here are the rules about what you're trying to do.

And then the Secretary of State develops those regulations in conjunction with that leadership group in that local community to say, these are the rules everybody's going to have to follow.

-And those were temporary regulations-- -Correct.

- --this last election cycle.

How close is the State to making permanent regulations for hand counting ballots?

-We're going through that process now.

We gotta go through the hearing process.

We got to go through the review.

The greatest part about that is hearing from the people it directly impacts.

You're gonna get some really good ideas.

You're gonna hear what the concerns are.

And any opportunity to strengthen the rules is critical to this process.

It's about listening, it's about digesting, and then figuring out what's in the best interest.

Also protecting our constitutional right to vote.

-Do you think that you'll have those in place before the next election cycle?

-Yes.

Actually, the timeline is there to ensure that these regulations are in permanent status.

-And those regulations, as I mentioned, were temporary last election.

And they were only applicable to counties that use them as, used hand counting as their primary method of counting ballots.

But Nye County got all this attention for it, but it was their secondary method.

I think they use machine tabulation.

So are you hearing from counties that they are readying to purely hand count votes?

-Not at all.

-No?

-Because I think people realize and recognize the challenges in going to a pure paper ballot and a pure hand-counting system.

The amount of resources you have to invest from a human component to make sure that is accurately done is pretty significant.

When you look at some of these communities and what their priorities are, you think it's education, its infrastructure, its, you know, crime and safety.

And when you talk about diverting dollars from those other issues into something that can be done in a very efficient and secure way, they're going to choose to go with the most cost efficient process.

-How effective do you think it was in Nye County this past election cycle?

-Well, Nye County went with electronic tabulation and then did audits from a hand-counting perspective.

So we had the results.

They were secure.

They were legitimate.

And they were used in the final tally of what Nevada elections produced.

-Okay.

So no personal thoughts on how it went there?

-I mean, look, again, it goes back to if I'm the executive in that administration, I have to look at a lot of different components.

One, its resources, its understanding what the expectation is by the community.

It's also making sure we get the best results we can that are secure and they're legitimate.

-Okay.

A criticism of hand counting is how time consuming it is.

-Well, it's time consuming, and it's human investment heavy, which all requires additional resources which sometimes we don't have as communities.

-Yeah.

Okay.

And if it is more time consuming, that is going to result in a delay of getting election results, which is already an issue that Nevada has been facing.

What is your office doing to speed up the process?

-Again, it goes back to the local counties.

The local counties are the one implementing the actual count.

What we need to do is, and this is where I think we need to have a real conversation.

So on election day Clark County had 95% of the ballots on hand.

They just didn't have the capacity to be able to count all those ballots they had on hand.

We need to work really hard to build that capacity to be able to make sure we're giving Nevadans the results when they expect them.

-Is that simply manpower?

-It's manpower, it's space, it's machines, it's resource investment, and it's stepping back.

And it's a simple operational question.

If we're gonna have X number of ballots on hand on election day, how many machines do we need, how many individuals do we need working with those machines on hand to process those ballots to get the results we need on election night?

I'm gonna go back to the fact that Nevada is a deep purple state.

We're not going to be able to call every election, because they are going to be so close.

But it doesn't mean we can't have the results to call a majority of our elections on election night.

We just have to get the counties to invest the resources to be able to build that capacity.

-What's keeping the counties from doing that?

-It's a great question, and it's a great conversation.

Again, it goes back to investment.

How many resources-- what resources do they want to invest in this process?

For example, LA County is able to count their ballots.

They are a very large county.

They have a 24-hour counting process.

Right now we limit to a certain amount of time.

So if we can change that dynamic to make, one, to buy additional machines, make sure there's a human component there to work the machines and do the appropriate processes, we can process a lot of these ballots a lot sooner than we have been.

-Okay, so are you calling on the counties to allocate more money to-- -Yes.

Look, I went to the legislature and asked for significant resources to invest in our election infrastructure to be able to do what we need to do to give Nevadans what they expect.

-And what are you hearing as feedback?

-Again, it's planning, planning, planning.

It's understanding the issues, and it's understanding where do we overcome some of those barriers.

Again, this is a partnership.

This is not-- I can't go in there and say, this is what you're going to do.

Because like every other county, they have challenges, they have priorities, but we know that Nevadans make elections a priority.

And we need to work together to come up with a plan to be able to do it.

One of those things is VREMS, which is the Voter Registration Election Management System, which is going to bring transparency to our voter system.

Right now, a lot of decisions are made off of manually created spreadsheets.

In any business that functions at a high level, you have to have real-time data to make decisions.

-And the legislature approved $30 million-- -It did.

- --for VREMS.

So what does it do?

-What it does is implement top-down voter registration, which allows us to produce voter rolls that are cleaner, which I know is a big priority for a lot of people in this state.

-Voter rolls, for those who don't know?

-Voter rolls are-- it's the list of voters who are eligible to vote in Nevada.

-Okay.

-So right now, it's done from a bottom-up.

The county, 17 counties manage that process.

So you have 17 different systems.

You have 17 different data feeds that come into one in the Secretary of State's office.

We'll be able to flip it so there's one consistent process that also takes advantage of what technology exists today.

For example, when you move and you change your address with the United States Postal Service, that information can then be fed to the Secretary of State's office to update that voter's address.

-Hmm.

-So we can make sure we have the most accurate information in real time about every registered qualified voter in Nevada.

-Gosh.

But there are-- people are nervous about technology and voting, in general.

-Yeah, but it's part of the process.

Still, we have some of the best run secure elections in the entire country, and we're going to continue to do that.

Because we are a purple state, we have no room for error.

And we have to do what we can to utilize the technology that exists, to utilize the resources that we have, and give Nevadans the best result possible.

-As part of Governor Joe Lombardo's efforts to, as he says, "restore faith in Nevada's elections process," he backed a bill this past session that would require identification in order to vote.

You did not support that.

Why?

-I think, again, it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist in Nevada.

I think there are other challenges.

There are issues that need to be addressed first before we start talking about ancillary issues that are nice political issues to have conversations about.

-And those issues being that you need to be addressed first.

-Right.

The transparency, the voter rolls, those types of issues.

One, implementing technology to allow a voter to track their ballot like a pizza.

So at every moment in time, a voter will know exactly where their ballot is, utilizing the technology that exists today with the United States Postal Service that will exist in the VREMS system so that you know that your ballot actually matters and it's getting to-- that, one, it's coming to you.

Your intended ballot is arriving to you.

Once you receive it, it then is returned for processing.

-I want to read this quote from his State of the State Address.

He said, "We require people to have a valid form of identification to get on a plane, to operate a motor vehicle, or to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but not to cast a vote in an election.

That is illogical."

-You know, I love you said that.

First, you don't need an ID to get on an airplane.

You can get on an airplane.

You just have to go through additional security.

Fortunately, I went through it.

It's not fun.

It takes a lot of time.

But you can actually board an airplane without an ID.

-Okay.

-Second of all, as a lawyer and my belief in the Constitution, we're talking about a constitutional fundamental right to vote.

Buying beer and buying cigarettes is not guaranteed in the Constitution.

And when you're going to start to compare voting to buying beer, you're talking about somebody's fundamental right guaranteed to them in the Constitution.

And that is not an accurate conversation or an accurate comparison.

Let's talk about the issues.

Let's figure out the priorities and making sure that we are appropriately identifying-- first of all, when you register to vote, you have to prove identity.

So there is photo ID in the process and in the system.

The other thing is with same-day voter registration, there is a voter ID component in that process.

So it's not like Nevada elections are void of any identification process or verification process.

The verification process is strong, and we have some of the most well-run and secure elections in the country.

-Francisco Aguilar, thank you so much for your time.

-Thank you for having me.

-Thank you so much for watching.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

And we'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

♪♪♪