Joe Gloria, the Clark County Registrar of Voters, speaks during a news conference at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022.
Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Nevada midterm election
Nevada’s slow release of midterm election results has many of us hitting refresh on our computers screens impatiently looking for updates.
Many have the same thought: What’s the holdup?
Statewide results have trickled in since Wednesday, a few thousand ballots at a time from various counties.
At least 431,190 Nevadans — an estimated 46.75% who participated in the election — submitted a mail ballot.
The methodical processing of mail ballots is playing out exactly how it should, officials and experts say.
Nevada is one of the last states nationally continuing to tabulate mail ballots, as the balance of the power in the U.S. Senate will be partially decided in the race between Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.
County election officials have until Thursday to finish the counting and submit a report to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office, according to state law. And they are going to take the time to do it right, said Joe Gloria, the Clark County registrar of voters.
“I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that everything we are doing here in Clark County is moving those ballots as quickly as we can,” Gloria said. “But I have to caution you in saying we don’t want to move too fast. We want to make sure we’re accurate, validating the signatures and the identity of these folks.”
What most people don’t realize is the series of processes the state uses to verify mail-in votes to the constituents that cast them, said David Damore, a professor and chair of the political science department at UNLV. After sending universal absentee ballots to voters in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for the 2020 elections, Nevada’s Democratic-led Legislature passed a law in 2021 making universal mail voting permanent.
That process includes everything from taking the ballot from the secrecy envelope to sorting it, and verifying signatures. The county has a team of hundreds working through the process, which will extend into this week as roughly 7,000 ballots needing signature validation have until Monday to be “cured” by the voter.
“What is occurring is exactly in line with (state statutes), and both counties (Washoe and Clark, Nevada’s most populous) will meet the statutory deadlines for ballot processing,” Damore told the Sun in an email. “Given that mail ballots take longer to process and the state is transitioning from a system that was designed for in-person voting to one with a much larger share of mail ballots, this is to be expected, particularly given the volume of mail ballots.”
The delays are nothing new.
In the 2020 presidential election, nearly 15% of Nevada’s vote was not reported until after election night — and it took three days for the state to report 100% of the vote. That drew attention nationally, as Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s 34,000-vote victory against Republican incumbent Donald Trump gave him enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
With the fate of the U.S. Senate on the line in this year’s election, the waiting game continues to put Nevada’s counting system in the spotlight.
And that got the ire of Trump, who last week called the voting process in Clark County, home to about 75% of the state’s population, “corrupt.” In an attempt to rile up supporters of Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt and cast doubt into Nevada’s process, Trump in a social media post alleged, “They want more time to cheat.”
“Clark County, Nevada, has a corrupt voting system (be careful Adam!), as do many places in our soon to be Third World Country,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Many Republicans cried foul after Trump’s loss in 2020 and touted claims thatmail-in ballots were submitted fraudulently in Nevada and that the election was stolen. Those claims have been proved false in court challenges, and Nevada’s Republican secretary of state has assured the public the election was free and fair and untainted by meaningful fraud.
Hours after Trump’s post, the county issued a forceful response, criticizing him for being “obviously still misinformed,” about the state’s election process.
Gloria, who hosted daily updates this past week, maintained several times the county was moving as expediently as possible. State law gave local jurisdictions until Saturday to receive any mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday.
“It’s the elephant in the room that I keep trying to communicate,” Gloria said. “There are statutory deadlines here that prevent me from finishing any earlier than the general public or you, the media, would like to see us work.
“Why would I rush through perilously, and process these ballots when I know we have statutory deadlines. I can’t move any faster than what statutes allow me to.”
The only way the state’s deadlines to process ballots could be moved up would be through further action by the Legislature, Gloria said.
And though that might ease nerves for some who want election results as fast as possible, that could spell trouble for the election workers who work diligently to get the count in accurately, said Emily Persaud-Zamora, executive director of the nonprofit Silver State Voices, which advocates for greater voter participation in marginalized communities across Nevada.
Clark County has been doing a decent job with the voter infrastructure they have in place, she said. But as mail balloting becomes more commonplace, officials will need to beef up the current systems in place.
“I don’t think it’s good to put that pressure on elections departments just to do this work in a quicker manner just so we can get results,” Persaud-Zamora said. “But overall, I think that if counties are seeing more voters vote by mail, the county commissions are going to have to properly fund county elections departments so they have the staffing infrastructure to be able to support this volume.”
Nevada is a unique situation in that, relative to its population, no other state receives the majority of its votes via the mail-in or dropoff system, Persaus-Zamora said. And even though more populous swing states like Pennsylvania and Florida can process millions of votes by the end of election night, the systems are simply too different to compare.
“I definitely understand there’s a level of frustration from people that want to know,” she said. “I want to know too. But I think what is preferred is that they go through their process and they are ensuring that every eligible voter has cast their ballot and they have done it correctly.”
That much was echoed by Gloria.
“We’re only in our second year of what we do. I know that we have the proper equipment to process ballots efficiently here in Clark County, but the laws are different,” he said. ”But I can tell you with a great deal of confidence that waht we’re doing here in Clark County is moving about as quickly as we can. I have to caution that by saying we don’t want to move too fast. We want to make sure that we’re being accurate in validating the signatures and the identity of folks.”
That frustration noted by Persaud-Zamora is exactly what can lead to threats that target election workers. Gloria this past week wouldn’t disclose whether his staff, which he said numbered about 200, had received threats. But several Metro Police cruisers were parked outside each of the tabulation center’s driveway exits, and other security screened visitors and media members as they entered.
“Unfortunately, comments like the one that came out today from former President Trump, gets certain people very fired up and they’re convinced that we are doing things that are inappropriate or against the law,” Gloria said Thursday. “And that’s just not the case.
“So we have to make sure that these people that are coming in and out — and there are hundreds coming here on a daily basis — feel safe getting in and out of their car, coming into the building, leaving at night when it’s dark (or) that they feel secure and continue coming to work so we can do the work that needs to be done.”
How does Nevada tabulate a mail-in vote?
The way Nevada processes votes requires a 10-step process, according to the Washoe County registrar of voters.
After the ballot packets arrive at the county, staff cut the seal to the ballot’s transfer bag and verify the number of mail-in ballots that were placed in the transfer bag match those in custody. County couriers make a trip daily to Las Vegas’ main post office to pick up ballots that come through mail and deliver them to the county election department.
From there, the ballot packets are taken to an “intake station” manned by two people to ensure the count is consistent with the number of ballots that were delivered. If a discrepancy is discovered, a second pair of staff audit and resolve the issue.
After intake, the barcode on the ballot packets are scanned to confirm the mail-in ballot was received. Packets are then sorted through a machine, and a laser cuts a hole to see the signature box to continue the process and a signature review takes place.
Staff physically compare the signature to what the state has on file. If there is no signature on the ballot or if the signature does not match the state’s records, it will be marked as “challenged” and removed from the process until it can be cured, meaning the county will attempt to contact the voter to verify that the vote was cast by the registered voter whose name is printed on the envelope. Once cured, the ballot returns to the process.
Ballot packets are then run through a sorting machine again to put the ballots into batches. Ballot packets are then put into groups of “not more than 50” and are checked again to ensure they are in correct precinct order. The batched envelopes are run through a machine that cuts a slit at the top of the envelope. Ballots are then separated by staff from their envelope packets. State law allows this to begin 15 days from Election Day, for mailed ballots that arrive early can be counted ahead of election night. The empty envelopes are then stored in a secured area, and the ballots are placed in bins by precincts, in batches of not more than 50, where they will then be “imprinted” with a unique identification number.
Once imprinting is completed, staff complete a fourth count audit, then scan the ballot to be recorded. Successfully scanned ballots are then placed in a secure storage area.
Finally, ballots are boxed and sealed to avoid any tampering. If a ballot is in question, officials can unseal the box, record the transaction and reseal it again.
Envelopes and ballots are kept for 22 months, then they are destroyed.
