Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked the state Legislature to pass a resolution pressing President Bush "not to make changes to Social Security that would result in benefit cuts."
Reid spoke to a joint session of the Assembly and Senate Wednesday, saying he is willing to work with Bush on Social Security, but Bush's plan "will result in cuts to a retiree's benefits by a third or more and force us to borrow nearly $5 trillion, much of it from foreign counties like China and Japan."
Later, in a press conference, Reid said he has fulfilled the promise he made after the November election to work with Bush.
"I'm willing to work with the president on issues. I've done that on a number of things," he said. "He's just on the wrong track on this issue. I think it's an embarrassment to some Republicans."
Reid touched on federal and state issues during his 10-minute speech and at a later news conference with reporters.
He said he will work to solve a problem caused by a recent federal court ruling that would prevent Nevada from setting its own hunting and fishing standards for residents and nonresidents.
"We'll pass that," he said, adding that he met with one of his attorneys Wednesday on a bill he proposed. "We'll overturn the federal court ruling. I have no doubt about that."
He asked the Legislature to pass an immediate increase to the minimum wage instead of waiting for a constitutional amendment to clear the ballot again in 2006.
"Minimum wage is decades behind cost of living," he said. "Don't make families wait another two years."
And he encouraged the Legislature to allow Nevadans to register to vote closer to Election Day. The Legislature gave voters another 10 days to register last session, but Reid said he wants that date closer, perhaps even a same-day registration, as voters in Minnesota, Maine, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Wyoming and Idaho have.
"There's never been a single instance of fraud or cheating so I don't know why we do this unless it's to keep people from voting," he said.
"Common sense says when elections get heated and the election is about to take place, some people say, 'you know I want to get involved in this election,' but they can't register," Reid said. "That's not fair."
Secretary of State Dean Heller said he has been pushing to give voters more time to register since he took office 10 years ago, though he has consistently been told by legislative leaders that same-day registration won't pass.
Voter registration now closes a month before an election, though registrar offices allow people to register in person for another week.
Heller pointed out that 60 percent of the provisional ballots cast in Nevada were tossed out in 2004, compared with 32 percent of ballots thrown out nationally. That's a sign, he said, that many people wanted to vote who were not able to, perhaps because they couldn't register.
"I think we should make it as close as we possibly can and still be able to carry out an election," he said.
Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, co-chairwoman of the Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics, and Constitutional Amendments Committee, said she would like to see registration open longer. The issue could come up while her committee examines several problems that arose in the 2004 election, she said.
Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, chairwoman of the Legislative Operations and Elections Committee, said she also expects to look at the issue but would oppose same-day registration. It would be too difficult, she said, to verify each voter's identity.
archive
