Week of Sept. 17, 2026

From the editor’s desk

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump’s executive order restricting mail ballots could not go into effect this close to the upcoming election. 

Given that Nevada has one of the highest shares of mail-in voters—Nevada Public Radio put it at 44%—the ruling is a big deal here.

So, what exactly does Trump want to happen? And what actions has the court now prevented? Yesterday on Nevada Public Radio’s State of Nevada show, host Paul Boger and his guest, Nevada Independent reporter Kate Reynolds, helped unpack these questions.

Reynolds, referring to Trump’s ongoing attempts to implement election policy changes, said, “It has definitely been a very long and windy road.” She explained: 

It started back in March, when Trump issued his first executive order on mail voting, but it effectively ended with the Supreme Court, that ruled that the Trump administration could not implement new rules on mail voting ahead of the 2026 midterm election. 

So, President Trump, obviously, for years, has been suspicious of many states’ voting operations, and he started back in March to try to wield greater control over those mail ballots and the postal service’s delivery of them—basically told the postal service that they would have to collect lists of eligible voters from each state, that they would use those lists and cross-check those lists before determining if they would deliver mail ballots. 

The postal service is responsible for sending out election mail, but it usually doesn’t cross-check if voters will get mail ballots ahead of time, but the rules that Trump put into place, officially, in August, said: No, the postal service actually now is going to have wider discretion around who it delivers mail ballots to—which was an unusual step, and … a lot of election observers and experts sort of questioned why it was necessary, since there isn’t widespread fraud in mail voting, and states generally have a pretty accurate list of voters on their rolls.

About that lack of widespread voter fraud: Back in July, shortly after Trump and the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Nevada’s voter rolls listed almost 16,000 noncitizens, the DHS found only 185. 

On Monday evening, in response to the Supreme Court ruling, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar released a statement that read, in part: “Today’s ruling is a victory for voters across Nevada and the country who rely on voting by mail. This is not a party issue—across party lines and rural and urban communities, mail ballots give voters a way to make their voices heard.”

Ready to make your voice heard? With the midterm election coming up on Nov. 3, here are a couple of things to note. 

From the Washoe County Registrar: “Every active registered voter in Nevada is mailed a ballot unless they have opted out, and you can still choose to vote in person if you prefer.”

From Sec. Aguilar, who was also a guest on the aforementioned radio show: “We’re going to continue to run elections in Nevada as we always have. Mail ballots actually started going out this week to our military members overseas, so we are in the process of doing what we need to do to ensure that the 2026 election goes well.”

To register to vote or to check your registration, visit registertovote.nv.gov.

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In other news, the RN&R team is working on coverage of the wildfires’ aftermath. We’ll be bringing it to you over the next few months.

We’ve never covered breaking news as it’s breaking. Instead, we look deeply into the issues, and we tell the stories of people in our community.

Do you have a story to tell about your experience with a fire in our region in 2026? Do you have questions about the Hawk Fire, the Bug Fire, the Floriston Fire that broke out yesterday, or anything else related to wildfires? If so, I’d like to hear about it. Please drop me an email at krisv@renonr.com.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor

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