Opinion ID: 2457368
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: NRS 304.240(1) contemplates application of NRS 293.165(1)

Text: Reading these two statutes together, we conclude that NRS 304.240(1) anticipates a two-step process: a designation step, whereby a person becomes a candidate of a major political party, and a placement-on-the-ballot or special-election nomination step. For the designation step, we read NRS 304.240(1) as applying the procedure set forth in NRS 293.165(1). Such a reading provides meaning to the statute's incorporation of NRS Chapter 293 and Nevada's general election laws, of which NRS 293.165(1) is one. Thus, the first step in the NRS 304.240(1) analysis is to look to the procedure established in NRS 293.165 for filling a vacancy in a major political party nomination that ordinarily would have been filled by primary. The second step addresses the separate issue of placement on the ballot for the special election. The last three sentences in NRS 304.240(1) read that: A candidate of a major political party is nominated by filing a declaration or acceptance of candidacy within the time prescribed by the Secretary of State pursuant to NRS 293.204.[2] A minor political party that wishes to place its candidates on the ballot must file a list of its candidates with the Secretary of State not more than 46 days before the special election and not less than 32 days before the special election. [3] To have his or her name appear on the ballot, an independent candidate must file a petition of candidacy with the appropriate filing officer not more than 46 days before the special election and not less than 32 days before the special election. (Emphases added). We construe these sentences as addressing placement on the ballot, and thus, to the extent that these sentences modify the procedure set forth in NRS Chapter 293, they control. This interpretation further gives meaning to NRS 304.240(1)'s phrasing [e]xcept as otherwise provided in this subsection. With this two-step process in mind, under NRS 304.240(1), the individual designated by the major political party's central committee, in compliance with NRS 293.165, may be placed on the ballot when, having become [a] candidate of a major political party, he or she is nominated for the special election by filing a declaration or acceptance of candidacy within the time prescribed by the Secretary of State pursuant to NRS 293.204. This process results in a single candidate for each major political' party, and harmonizes NRS 304.240(1) with NRS 293.165(1). It also is consistent with Brown and historical Nevada practice under NRS 293.165 and its prior iterations. Where, as here, new legislation is passed but old legislation is retained, continuity of legislative purpose is inferred. [N]ew legislation usually ties to past experience and prior enactment.. . . Instead of the sudden, sporadic, and unexpected enactment of unprecedented legislation the ordinary legislative enactment. . . expands or restricts the regulation of former acts, but seldom breaks with the principle of regulation expressed by its predecessors. 2A Sutherland Statutory Construction § 45:10 (7th ed. 2007). Counsel for Secretary Miller conceded at oral argument that, to fill a House vacancy by special election before 2003, there would only be a single candidate for each major political party, who would have been chosen by the party central committee under NRS 293.165(1). Far from repudiating NRS 293.165(1) in NRS 304.240(1), the 2003 Legislature appears to have incorporated it by express reference, leaving it to lawyers and courts to argue whether NRS 293.165(l)'s method is otherwise provided in NRS 304.240. Reasonable policy arguments exist on both sides of the question of how a special election ballot should be populated. [8] The policy choice is for the Legislature, not the court. But in assessing the meaning of the election statutes involved in this appeal, we look to existing law and historical practice, which the Legislature did not disavow.