Pahrump Town Board Petition Misses Feb. 17 Deadline, Organizers Pledge Another Attempt

Dr. Tom Waters, a longtime Pahrump resident and lead proponent of the restoration effort, said organizers failed to collect the number of signatures required by the statutory Feb. 17, 2026 deadline to place a question to re-establish a Pahrump Town Board on the November 2026 ballot. The Pahrump Town Board Committee spent the last six months gathering signatures, Waters said, but the effort did not meet Nevada’s statutory test.

Waters described the legal threshold as 15% of the number of Pahrump voters in the previous election, which he said was 3,600. "The goal, or number of signatures required, is established by Nevada Revised Statute. This was 15% of the number of Pahrump voters in the previous election, which was 3,600 and unfortunately, we fell short of our goal," Waters told the Pahrump Valley Times.

The committee also ran up against a statutory time limit for petition drives, Waters said. "There was a 180-day time limit, which is also established by Nevada Revised Statute, and we ran out of time," he said, summarizing why the signatures gathered could not qualify the measure for the 2026 ballot.

Organizers brought final packets to county officials on Feb. 17, collecting "the final filled‑in petitions with the many signatures from several businesses that allowed us to have the petition at their locations but we realized that we just didn’t have enough total signatures to get the question placed on the ballot," Waters said. He acknowledged the shortfall but did not provide an exact count, saying, "We didn’t fall short by too many but we didn’t reach our goal."

The Pahrump Town Board Committee offered its gratitude to those who supported the petition, and to the Nye County Clerk’s Office and the Nye County District Attorney’s Office for guidance throughout the process, according to the committee’s statement to the Pahrump Valley Times.

Pahrump’s history with a town board dates to the mid-1980s. Editor’s notes in the Pahrump Code of Ordinances trace the formation: five registered voters filed a Notice of Intention on July 2, 1984, petitions were filed Sept. 5, 1984, the Nye County Clerk certified sufficiency on Sept. 18, 1984, and the question appeared on the Nov. 6, 1984 ballot with results favoring adoption. Ordinance No. 16 was adopted April 30, 1985, and later citations include Ord. No. 21, § 21.220 (April 8, 1986).

Voters dissolved the town board in the 2012 general election by a narrow margin of just 231 votes. With the Feb. 17 effort falling short, Waters said the committee plans to regroup: "If we listen to the Pahrump Town Board Committee who put this all together, they say we’ll try again in August 2027 for the November 2028 election," and added, "We’re counting on all of you to get us quickly across the finish line. If we consider this 2025‑2026 endeavor a ‘dry run’, we can easily get enough signatures next time."

Because the petition did not meet the statutory signature threshold and the 180-day clock expired, the town board question will not appear on the November 2026 ballot; organizers have set a target to restart the drive in August 2027 for the 2028 general election.