Envelopes for rejected ballots are shown at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas Thursday, May 26, 2022.
Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 | 4:03 p.m.
A letter mailed to a Las Vegas area voter’s home explains that the Clark County Elections Department received their midterm election ballot, but the signature on the return envelope was missing or didn’t match their registration profile.
The voter has until 5 p.m. Monday to fix the problem so their vote can be counted, the letter explains.
Nearly 10,000 such letters have been sent out notifying voters that their ballots are in the so-called cure process. About 7,100 still had not been resolved as of Thursday, said Joe Gloria, the Clark County registrar of voters
Voters can check the status of their mail ballot online here.
If there was a problem, there are a few options to verify a signature in Clark County, which recommends using the TXT2Cure Application.
Text Clark to 28683 to start the process and receive a return message with a secure2vote.mobi web link. Open the link’s site to go through the verification process.
The back of the notice from the county also includes options for completing a cure affidavit, which must be returned with a photocopy of the voter’s ID by email, fax or U.S. mail.
Voters can also call the election department at 702-455-6552 for guidance.
The county received 271,605 mail ballots through Thursday, representing 20.65% of 1,315,438 registered voters.
A few thousand votes is significant in some extremely close races, such as the U.S. Senate race between Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt. Laxalt led Cortez Masto by about 16,000 votes as of Thursday afternoon.
Nevada Democratic Victory, an advocacy group that works to get Democrats elected, is taking action by organizing a call bank to contact voters whose ballots need to be cured. The county posted a list online of voters in question.
“In order to win and protect every Nevadan, we need to reach every supporter that has encountered a ballot issue and ensure their vote is counted,” the group posted on its site looking for volunteers.
Voter advocates are stressing that every last vote counts, citing a race for the Clark County Commission in which Democrat Ross Miller beat Republican Stavros Anthony by 15 votes.
Emily Persaud-Zamora, executive director of Silver State Voices, a nonprofit that advocates for greater voter participation in marginalized communities across Nevada, said there are many races where the margin of victory could be less than 2,000 votes.
“The reality is a lot of folks don’t properly fill out their ballots,” she said. “They might fill it out, seal it, but forget to sign it.”
