Some Nevada voters are learning that their voter registration has been automatically changed by the DMV.

Some voters have told 2 News that when they went to a polling place today to cast their ballot, only non-partisan races were listed.

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) says a limited number of voters who completed a DMV driver’s license transactions but failed to choose a party during the process had their voter registration changed to “non-partisan.”  

The DMV tells 2 News that this statewide issue only affected voters who completed a driver’s license transaction online prior to October 25, 2021.

They also tell us the issue only happening to DMV customers who:

  • did a driver's license renewal, duplicate or address change online
  • prior to October 25 
  • and did not choose a party during the process

When asked, the DMV sent us this statement:

The DMV does not change anyone’s existing party affiliation unless they change it themselves, whether intentionally or inadvertently. 

Customers in the DMV offices are given a paper form to choose their party designation. They may complete it and drop it in a red box at the office before leaving but they are not required to do so. Customers may also register to vote or update their registration during driver’s license transactions on the MyDMV portal. If a customer fails to submit the form or doesn’t choose a party during the online transaction, the DMV submits “customer left blank” for party affiliation.

Another circumstance where “customer left blank” would be reported is if the customer chooses “Other” for the party and fails to write in the name of the party.

This is the current procedure. The in-office AVR transactions have always been programmed to report “customer left blank.”

However, prior to October 25, 2021, the MyDMV portal was programmed to submit party information as “Non-partisan” when the customer left the affiliation blank. This was the procedure requested by the county elections officials when AVR first went online. 

On October 25, this was changed, again at the request of the county elections officials. The party information is now submitted as “customer left blank” if the customer leaves the affiliation blank during an online transaction.

The 44,000 voters Jon mentioned back in December, then, were those who had failed to choose a party affiliation when completing an online transaction prior to October 25.   

For general info on today's primary in Nevada, including voter turnout and wait times for polling places open until 7 p.m., click the story below. 

Any further developments on this story will be found here.