Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo this month vetoed a bill prohibiting guns at election sites, despite wide support from Nevadans. It’s a setback for shoring up protections against intimidation at the polls and denies the state’s voters protections available in states including Florida and Texas.
The bill, NV A.B. 105, would have prohibited firearms inside and within 100 feet of election sites, which are defined as polling places, central counting places, and drop boxes. The Brennan Center and gun violence prevention groups support the policy as a commonsense measure to safeguard the democratic process. A 2025 poll by Everytown for Gun Safety showed that an overwhelming number of Nevada voters — 70 percent — believed that guns had no place at polling sites. Yet Lombardo vetoed a similar bill in 2023.
In recent election cycles, political violence and intimidation have escalated against voters, election workers, and election officials. Guns have at times been used to carry out that intimidation. In 2022, armed members of a right-wing militia group stood alongside drop boxes in Arizona, frightening voters. People carrying guns and wearing military garb gathered outside a vote counting site in Las Vegas in the days following the 2020 election, yelling, “Stop the steal.” The Nevada bill was aimed at combatting that kind of armed intimidation.
Lombardo said the bill was duplicative of existing law, but that is not true. Nevada makes intimidation of voters and election workers a crime, but only if the intimidation is intentional. But the presence of a firearm at or near a polling location can itself have an intimidating effect on voters or election workers, regardless of the carrier’s intent. This bill gave Lombardo the opportunity to ensure that fear of gun violence at the polls does not dissuade anyone from voting or serving as an election worker.
The governor’s veto comes as other states take a different approach, recognizing that guns can jeopardize the right of Americans to vote free of intimidation. States including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas have prohibited guns at or near polling locations for decades. Other states, including Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Vermont enacted such laws in recent years. Indeed, the Supreme Court has recognized that prohibiting guns at polling places is lawful under the Second Amendment because polling places are “sensitive locations” where guns pose even greater risks.
As voter intimidation, threats of political violence, and gun violence persist around the country, states must proactively enact pro-voter policies that curb these occurrences, especially armed intimidation. In vetoing this legislation, Nevada’s governor has left voters and election workers vulnerable.
