Why Nevada election results are taking days

[ThatRobGuy]

Why Nevada election results are taking days

Vote counting in Nevada’s closely watched races for Senate looked to spill into the weekend, with control of Congress still to be determined.

apnews.com

A few things have slowed Nevada’s vote counting in recent elections.

For one, Nevada greatly expanded absentee voting in 2020, sending a ballot to every registered voter. The state passed legislation to do that in future elections as well.

That year, 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.

Second, Nevada has had issues with long voter lines at poll close, although Nevadans have traditionally opted to vote early. The state won’t release vote counts until all voters who were in line at poll close have cast their vote.

Ballots postmarked by Election Day can be received until Saturday, and officials have until Thursday to finish counting and submit a report to the Nevada secretary of state’s office, according to state law.

This year, voting officials in the two most populous counties, encompassing the population centers of Las Vegas and Reno, warned it would take days to process the outstanding ballots.



While I don't think it's reasonable for people to immediately rush to conspiracy theories (I've seen several pertaining to Arizona and Nevada), I do think it's, at the very least, fair to ask why they're having such a hard time with it compared to other (much larger) states that managed to get enough votes to call it in a night.

Should they start looking to emulate other states that seem to have a better handle on this?

 

[rjs330]

Why Nevada election results are taking days

Vote counting in Nevada’s closely watched races for Senate looked to spill into the weekend, with control of Congress still to be determined.

apnews.com

A few things have slowed Nevada’s vote counting in recent elections.

For one, Nevada greatly expanded absentee voting in 2020, sending a ballot to every registered voter. The state passed legislation to do that in future elections as well.

That year, 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.

Second, Nevada has had issues with long voter lines at poll close, although Nevadans have traditionally opted to vote early. The state won’t release vote counts until all voters who were in line at poll close have cast their vote.

Ballots postmarked by Election Day can be received until Saturday, and officials have until Thursday to finish counting and submit a report to the Nevada secretary of state’s office, according to state law.

This year, voting officials in the two most populous counties, encompassing the population centers of Las Vegas and Reno, warned it would take days to process the outstanding ballots.



While I don't think it's reasonable for people to immediately rush to conspiracy theories (I've seen several pertaining to Arizona and Nevada), I do think it's, at the very least, fair to ask why they're having such a hard time with it compared to other (much larger) states that managed to get enough votes to call it in a night.

Should they start looking to emulate other states that seem to have a better handle on this?

I've wondered the same thing about these states. Perhaps they seriously need to rethink their processes. It's not like there are not better options out there.

 

[wing2000]

That year, 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.

Second, Nevada has had issues with long voter lines at poll close, although Nevadans have traditionally opted to vote early. The state won’t release vote counts until all voters who were in line at poll close have cast their vote.

Does NV have early - in person voting available? More polling locations needed? [maybe look into why in-person voters are voting so late in the day....employers not giving time off to vote? etc]

Ballots postmarked by Election Day can be received until Saturday, and officials have until Thursday to finish counting and submit a report to the Nevada secretary of state’s office, according to state law.

In Arizona, the ballots have to be received by election day or they are not counted -regardless of the post mark. Nov 1st is the recommended last day for mailing early ballots. That said, this year approximately 285,000 voters dropped off their "early" ballots on election day (nearly 100k more than 2020). It's not clear why so many did so (suspect misinformation has a role) but it's clear more Democrats actually voted early by the results released on election night. Each early ballot dropped on election day has to be checked to ensure the voter did not vote in person, signature verified with the voter registration record and prepared to be tabulated....all of that takes time. In the case of Arizona, I would support changing the early ballot process to:
1) Mail ballot by Nov 1st (or 7 days prior to election day)
2) Last day for physically dropping off an early ballot is 3 days prior to election day
...otherwise, one has to vote in person on election day (or in person early voting up to 3 days prior)