Carson City has served simultaneously as the county seat of Ormsby County, and the state capital. The county was established in 1861, and named after Major William M. Ormsby, who is known for his prominent role in the Pyramid Lake War. In 1862, commissioners purchased the Great Basin Hotel from Abraham Curry for $42,500 to use as the county courthouse. Despite criticism from locals about its lack of monumental appearance, the courthouse remained in use for almost sixty years.

In 1975, Nevada launched an innovation in elections when it became the first state to offer a "none of these candidates" line on the ballot, popularly known as "none of the above." Assemblyman Don Mello of Washoe County sponsored the legislation to create the ballot option. As it was approved, it was nonbinding, and it carefully excluded legislative candidates by applying only to statewide races.

The first push to make Nevada Territory a state originated from within the territory, without prior authorization from Congress. On September 2, 1863 the voters of the territory approved of the concept of statehood by the overwhelming margin of 6,660 votes to only 1,502. To implement this, on November 2, 1863, thirty-nine delegates met to draft a state constitution. Since the great majority of the delegates had come to Nevada by way of California, they used the California state constitution as a first draft in formulating their own document.

On March 2, 1861, United States President James Buchanan signed into law a bill passed earlier by Congress to establish the Territory of Nevada from a portion of the Utah Territory. Carson City was selected to be the seat of government of the new territory and has served as Nevada's state capital ever since.

Nevada was rushed into statehood earlier than other states because of issues involving the Civil War and the commitment of President Abraham Lincoln to preserve the union. On October 31, 1864, Lincoln signed the act to make Nevada the thirty-sixth state.