内华达州里诺-内华达州国务卿办公室将为共和党选民举行总统初选，尽管内华达州共和党表示，他们只会尊重他们党内党团会议的结果，以选择共和党总统候选人。
第二名共和党总统候选人周五在总统初选投票中投下了自己的名字，引发了一项2021年的州法律，要求内华达州国务卿办公室为该党举行总统初选。
现在，两场总统候选人提名角逐被安排在2月份为期三天的时间里，这可能会给共和党选民带来广泛的困惑。
“我没有能力或机会来决定我将遵循哪一项法律或法规，”内华达州国务卿思科·阿吉拉尔说。“这不是我作为监管者的职责。”
尽管有该州的法律，内华达州共和党决定举行党团会议，这一决定引发了批评——甚至来自共和党内部——原因是潜在的选民困惑和担心该州试图将前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的天平向其他候选人倾斜。
尽管如此，该党中央委员会成员上个月晚些时候投票通过了党团规则。
内华达州共和党批准的规则之一是，如果任何候选人参加2月6日的州立初选，他们将被禁止参加2月8日的党团会议，这对试图在纯粹具有象征意义的初选或许多人说倾向于特朗普的党团会议之间做出决定的共和党候选人来说，是一种最后通牒
内华达州共和党主席迈克尔·麦克唐纳是2020年的假选举人，他试图在特朗普当选后让特朗普继续掌权选举loss一再为举行党团会议的决定辩护，并坚持认为这些规则不是为了让前总统受益。他还批评内华达州民主党控制的立法机构的立法者拒绝了共和党州长乔·伦巴多(Joe Lombardo)提出的选举法，特别是要求在投票箱证明身份，而不仅仅是在登记投票时。
“这给了每个候选人表现的机会。这是为了让他们的人民出来，”麦克唐纳在上个月该州批准规则后接受采访时说。"...我的工作，也是我的目标，就是让候选人了解我们所有的县。”
到目前为止，特朗普和商人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米是仅有的两位有资格参加辩论的候选人。到目前为止，初选中的两位共和党人——里诺居民希斯·富尔克森和德克萨斯州居民约翰·卡斯特罗——还不为人知。卡斯特罗因试图起诉特朗普，将他的名字从包括内华达州在内的几个州的初选选票中删除而成为头条新闻，理由是他在1月6日国会大厦袭击事件中扮演的角色。最高法院表示，它不会在联邦一级提起诉讼。
其余的竞选团队还没有宣布他们将参加哪一场提名竞争。但永不退缩，支持佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯的超级政治行动委员会(Super PAC)从内华达州和其他州撤出了敲门者——超级政治行动委员会创始人肯·库奇内利(Ken Cuccinelli)表示，此举是由内华达州共和党的党团会议计划推动的。
党团会议还要求选民身份证，纸质选票和只在同一天投票。内华达州的选举法用于州立初选，要求普遍邮寄选票，提前投票，当天登记，并要求身份证登记投票，但不是在投票站。
阿吉拉尔的办公室正在启动一项选民教育项目，向对总统选举感兴趣的选民提供信息。尽管如此，他坚持认为，他们的外联将严格围绕他的办公室正在运行的总统初选进程，而不是政党运行的党团会议。他说，党团外联是该州的工作，候选人选择参加党团。
阿吉拉尔说:“如果他们认为这是他们政党的最大利益，那就由他们决定。”"我无权对此发表意见。"
Nevada must hold a GOP presidential primary, despite a party-run caucus occurring 2 days later
FILE - People wait in line to vote at a polling place on June 14, 2022, in Las Vegas. The Nevada secretary of state’s office will hold a presidential primary for Republican voters, despite the Nevada GOP saying they’ll onl...Show moreundefined
The Associated Press
RENO, Nev. --The Nevada secretary of state’s office will hold a presidential primary for Republican voters, despite the Nevada GOP saying they’ll only honor the results of their party-run caucus to choose the Republican presidential nominee.
A second longshot Republican presidential candidate cast their name on the presidential primary ballot Friday, triggering a 2021 state law that requires the Nevada secretary of state’s office to hold a presidential primary for the party.
Two presidential nominating contests are now scheduled over the span of three days in February, which could result in widespread confusion for Republican voters.
“I don’t have the ability or the opportunity to determine which law or regulation I’m going to follow,” Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said. “That’s not my job as a regulator.”
The Nevada Republican Party’s decision to hold a caucus in spite of the state law has elicited criticism — even from within its own ranks — stemming from potential voter confusion and concerns the state party is attempting to tilt the scale for former President Donald Trump over other candidates.
Still, the caucus rules were approved in a vote by the state party’s central committee members late last month.
One of the rules approved by the Nevada GOP bars any candidate from the Feb. 8 caucus if they participate in the Feb. 6 state-run primary, setting up an ultimatum of sorts for Republican candidates trying to decide between a primary that is purely symbolic or a caucus that many say is tilted toward Trump
Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, a fake elector in 2020 who tried to keep Trump in power after hiselectionloss, has repeatedly defended the decision to run a caucus and maintained the rules were not set to benefit the former president. He also criticized lawmakers in Nevada's Democratic-controlled Legislature for rejecting Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's proposed election laws, particularly one that requires proof of identification at the ballot box, instead of just when registering to vote.
“It gives each candidate the opportunity to perform. It’s about getting their people out,” McDonald said of the caucus in an interview after the state party approved the rules last month. "... And my job, as well as my goal, is to have the candidates get to know all our counties.”
So far, Trump and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy are the only two debate-eligible candidates to commit to the caucus. The two Republicans so far on the primary ballot — Reno resident Heath Fulkerson and Texas resident John Castro — are unknowns. Castro has made some headlines for attempting to sue Trump to get his name off the primary ballots in several states, including Nevada, citing his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The Supreme Court said it will not take up the lawsuit at the federal level.
The rest of the campaigns have not announced which nominating contest they will participate in. But Never Back Down, a Super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, pulled its door-knockers from Nevada and other states — a move that super PAC founder Ken Cuccinelli said was prompted by the Nevada GOP’s caucus plans.
The caucus also calls for voter ID, paper ballots and only same-day voting. Nevada’s election laws, used in the state-run primary, require universal mail-in ballots, early voting, same-day registration, and require an ID to register to vote, but not at the polls.
Aguilar’s office is launching a voter education project to inform voters interested in the presidential election. Still, he maintained that their outreach will strictly be about the presidential primary process his office is running, not the party-run caucus. He said caucus outreach is the job of the state party and the candidates opt for the caucus.
“If they determined this is the best interest of their party, that’s up to them,” Aguilar said. “It’s not up to me to have an opinion about it.”
