Voting cards are shown at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas Thursday, May 26, 2022.
Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 | 3:08 p.m.
A high-wind warning and dust advisory in Southern Nevada on Saturday, the first day of early voting, likely kept some would-be voters from casting their ballots in the midterm election.
A total of 19,442 voters cast ballots during the first two days of early voting, according to the Clark County Election Department.
That was about 30,000 fewer voters than in the first two days of early voting in the 2020 general election, according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office.
The total number of submitted mail ballots — those dropped off at polling sites or received in the mail — has not been released.
There are 1,314,774 registered voters in Clark County — 466,347 Democrats, 339,746 Republicans, 408,431 nonpartisans and 100,250 others. In the initial two days, 44.6% of voters were Republican, 37.2% Democrats and 18.1% other, according to the Nevada Independent.
With control of the U.S. Senate on the line, many eyes are on Nevada and the race between incumbent Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt. Polling suggests it will be a closely contested race.
In another closely watched race, Republican Joe Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff, is challenging Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak for the Nevada governorship.
Regardless of the high-profile races, Clark County likely won’t reach the turnout numbers from the 2020 presidential election, where 974,192 of 1,292,086 registered voters cast a ballot, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Of that number, 411,747 people voted early in person and 453,255 submitted mail ballots.
That election, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and with voters motivated by the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd during an arrest by white police in Minnesota, was also the first to feature mail ballots — a change implemented by Democratic-controlled Nevada Legislature as a response to the health crisis.
Early voting runs through Nov. 4. Here is where you can vote, either in-person or to drop off a mail-in ballot.
