Voting and Democratic Engagement
UNLV Votes
Vote: Your Voice Matters
Voting and democratic engagement is an important part of being an engaged community member. This page is designed to serve as a resource for registering to vote, learning about upcoming elections, accessing nonpartisan voting resources, and getting involved with local nonpartisan engagement efforts.
Register to Vote, Update or Check Your Registration
There are a few ways to register to vote, check your registration, or update your voting information.
- Register, request a mail-in ballot, or pledge to vote via UNLV’s ALL IN to Vote portal; this tool is powered by TurboVote and can help students from any state to connect with their Secretary of State’s office.
- The Nevada Secretary of State’s office is a great resource and direct registration.
- Refer to the ALLINtoVote.org website for more information.
Make Your Voting Plan
Whether you’re a first-time or an experienced voter, having a plan helps make sure that the voting process goes smoothly! Here is SLL’s guide to making a plan to vote.
Mail in: In Clark County, you can drop your mail-in ballot at any USPS mail point, or at any voting center.
If you choose to vote in-person, pick where you want to vote.
As a student, you are entitled to vote in your home state or the state where you attend school. If you plan to vote in your home state, you’ll need to request an absentee ballot. Check out requirements for students voting in Nevada from our Secretary of State.
If you are a student updating your voter registration to (or within) Nevada, your mailing address to use for residence halls is: [Your Hall/Building] 1130 University Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89119.
Request an absentee ballot using the Nevada EASE (Effective Absentee System for Elections). Get more info from the Nevada Secretary of State for uniformed and overseas voters (aka study abroad students registered in Nevada-- and connect to the NV EASE).
Research What's on the Ballot
Getting educated before an election is important and takes some work. Elected officials represent everyone that lives in their district, and they make decisions that impact daily life in ways both big and small.
Voting is one way that you can influence where your tax dollars go and what policies get put in place. Your vote carries more weight than you might think — most elections are decided by a very small margin, often of less than 3%. Your vote as a student matters!
Learn about candidates and find out if their views and policies align with yours before you vote. There are many resources available- please consider how to vet the authenticity of sources and information. A few well-respected, nonpartisan resources we can recommend include guides.vote, ballotpedia, issuevoter, vote411.org, and ballotready.org
- Clark County Election Department - The general Clark County Election Department page can help you find information and resources for upcoming elections, learn about, and apply to be a poll worker in an upcoming election. They also run Clark County Voter Services where you can review your current registration data (address, party, language preference), print forms to update your registration, view your sample ballot or polling place, request or track a mail ballot, or apply to be a poll worker.
- Nevada Secretary of State Website - Find information about statewide updates for voter registration and upcoming elections-- anything from past election data, poll worker info to Youth Vote Nevada, election info for upcoming elections and more.
- UNLV’s Office of Government and Community Engagement- Government Engagement page has a wealth of information from guidelines on engagement to federal overview, to state and local engagement.
- ALL IN to Vote’s Voting 101 page has helpful sections such as out-of state-voter info, resources for overseas voters, resources for voters with disabilities, resources for trans voters, restore your vote (for voters with felonies that may have impacted their voting status), how do I vote early, can I vote in the primaries, how do I vote by mail, can I vote remotely, do I need an ID, and what are my voting rights?
Living on campus or attending UNLV, you have elected government officials who represent you, whether or not you are registered to vote here!
Elected officials as of 7/23/24 for 4505 S Maryland Parkway (university address) include:
- Representation Commissioner: G - Jim Gibson (D)
- U.S. Senate: Jacky Rosen, Catherine Cortez-Masto
- U.S. Congress: 1 - Dina Titus (D)
- State Senate: 10 - Fabian Donate (D)
- State Assembly: 15 - Howard Watts (D)
- School District: D - Brenda Zamora
- University Regent: 3 - Byron Brooks
- Board of Education: 1 - Tim Hughes
- Minor Civil Division: Las Vegas
- Township: CC Paradise
You can also use these websites to determine who represents you for your home address:
- Nevada State Legislature: Who represents me?
- US Congress: Find Your Members (finds both Senators and House of Representative member contact info)
- Which Legislator Represents My…? (city, county, school boards, etc- hosted by NV Legislature)
It can feel confusing or overwhelming to contact your elected officials. There are a wealth of resources available from tips, scripts and talking points to leave a message, write an email or send a letter. Sites like 5Calls can make it easy to contact your representatives via phone, email or other means. It is always ideal to be considerate, concise and clear with your message so their staff can pass on your feedback to your representatives.
Email us at sll@unlv.edu or lead@unlv.edu.
Look for Civic Engagement Ambassadors at campus events
Our ambassadors will be wearing “Ask me about voting” shirts at various campus events and will be ready to share resources or answer questions.
Find Registered Student Organizations
Visit the Involvement Center. Click the top left hamburger drop-down menu and select Organizations. On the left is a menu for Categories where you can drop-down options to select such as: Civic Engagement & Advocacy, or Political. This will help you find partisan or nonpartisan Registered Student Organizations based on your interests or affiliations.
How to Vote
Don’t forget to actually get to the polls — life can get busy, but use your plan to go vote in-person or submit your mail-in ballot on time. (And remind friends and family to do the same!) There are laws protecting voters to be able to take time off to vote on election day. Voting in Nevada is very convenient with lots of options across a span of time.
Absentee or mail-in ballots are used when the address where someone lives is different from the one where they are registered. Each state builds their own guidelines for voting by mail or voting absentee. In Nevada, you do not need a reason to vote by mail, and you are entitled to a mail ballot free of charge.
Nevada Mail Ballot Guidelines
Voters have two options to return a mail ballot:
- Return by mail using the provided postage prepaid ballot return envelope: In order to be counted, ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than Election Day. Mail ballots that are given to a mail carrier or deposited in a Post Office receptacle prior to the last posted pickup time will have their ballot postmarked that same day.
- Return in-person at a ballot drop-off location: Ballots returned at a drop-off location must be dropped off prior to the polls closing on Election Day. All counties will have at least one ballot drop-off location; voting centers can also accept mail ballots. A list of all ballot drop-off locations by county can be found on the Nevada Secretary of State website.
Tips/reminders on returning a mail-in ballot:
- Return your ballot on time - Ballots can be completed and returned immediately once they are received; you do not have to wait until a certain date closer to Election Day to submit your mail ballot.
- Use your ballot return envelope; ballots returned in any other envelope will not be counted. Regardless of how a mail ballot is returned, it must be returned in the provided ballot return envelope.
- If needed, a replacement ballot return envelope can be obtained from your county election office. Only one ballot should be returned per ballot return envelope. If a ballot return envelope contains more than one ballot, none of the ballots will be counted.
- Make sure you sign your ballot return envelope. All ballot return envelopes must be signed by the voter. This signature is used to confirm the voter's identity, so if your ballot return envelope is not signed your ballot will not be counted. Your signature needs to match your driver's license signature.
- Check the Status of Your Mail Ballot - Voters in the state of Nevada can track the status of their mail ballot at MyBallot.NV.gov. You can sign up anytime – before or after receiving your ballot, before or after mailing it back or dropping it off, etc. – and receive updates via text or email about the status of your mail ballot. Other states will have info on their ballot tracking systems.
Early Voting
Voting early is flexible, convenient, and reliable. It can help reduce election day traffic and gets results to election departments for tabulation.
Early voting in Nevada is easy, and is available to every voter. Voters can vote at any location in their respective county where early voting is offered. Get more information about early voting in Nevada.
Election Day
Clark County voters are entitled to vote at any in-person polling location in the county on Election Day. Find a Clark County Election Day polling location.
On Election Day, the Clark County Elections Department will post an interactive website showing polling locations near you and estimated wait times. If you are in line to vote by 7 p.m., stay in line — you will get to vote.
In Clark County, all Election Day Vote Centers will be mail ballot drop-off sites. You can show up to any Vote Center on Election Day with your filled out and signed mail ballot and vote your mail ballot instead of voting in person if you would like. Check out the Vote by Mail section for more guidance about voting your mail ballot.
Local government pages post about results — Clark County Elections, the NV Secretary of State both post current and historical election results.
Know Your Rights
Election Protection
If you experience problems while voting:
National Resources
Visit 866 Our Vote website to view election related deadlines and guidelines for your state, including voter ID information.
You can call the Election Protection Hotline: 866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) if you have voting related questions and you can report issues at polling places through the hotline.
Local resources
Clark County Elections Department is a great resource – you can call in to their department to get immediate response to support voting and voters- call 702- 455-8683.
Learn More
Get Involved
Voting is just one way to participate in civic life. Here are ways to get involved after the election.
The local community has a lot of civic organizations grouped by different interests (topic, identity, profession, affiliation, etc) that do work year-round on advocacy and more.
Registered Student Organizations can be especially active and vibrant during elections, but also in between them, and they need students to engage year over year. This might be your chance to take on a leadership role or commit to attending meetings regularly.
Board of Regents (Nevada System of Higher Education governance with elected officials), University Town Halls, State of the Union/State/University, City Council, County Commissions, School board meetings, legislative committee meetings-- there are a number of meetings happening all the time. Showing up, listening, asking questions, and sharing your opinion within the framework for public comment are powerful actions.
Your UNLV CSUN Student Government (Consolidated Students of the University of Nevada) or your Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) represents you — and is often looking to engage more students.
Meetings are public and governed by open meeting laws meaning agendas are posted in advance and minutes are available to all. Voice your opinion, listen and learn, or ask questions to learn more.
- Attend a mixer and communicate with your representative- they want to hear from you and they host events by college to connect with students.
- Run or apply for a position — advance initiatives important to students and build skills for future engagement. (Some of these skills could seem intimidating from the outside- writing resolutions or bills, using Robert’s Rules — but are totally learnable and successfully used by many students and student orgs!)
Our office hosts a number of civic engagement events and series to keep up to date on your skills and interests so you can engage in the community. Students can join us for our free opportunities like Snacks and Skills, the Community Block Party, Serve and Lead MiniCon and more — find info on our SLL LEAD Team website or the Involvement Center.