Election workers secure ballot drop boxes late Tuesday night at the Clark County Election Department. (Photo: Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)
Nevada was largely caught in the national red wave Tuesday, but the fate of several local and congressional races is still up in the air.
Final results for the state may depend on thousands of outstanding votes still being counted in Clark County.
On Wednesday afternoon, Clark County election officials said 54,000 Election Day drop-off ballots are still being processed.
While polls in Clark County officially closed at 7 p.m., long lines held up the release of results in the state’s largest county. An hour after polls officially closed, less than half of polling locations in Clark County had closed. Election workers secured dozens of drop-off ballot boxes overnight, which election officials did not start counting until Wednesday morning.
Thousands of other mail-in ballots are expected to come in over the following days. About 9,200 ballots received from the U.S. Post Office in Clark County Tuesday morning completed the verification and tabulation process as of Wednesday afternoon.
Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo said her office has been working overnight to ensure all ballots are processed efficiently, adding that the mailed ballots her office received last night and Wednesday morning have still not been counted.
“We have had teams here overnight, pretty much 24 hour operations to get all the mail ballots processed,” Portillo said. “This is new to 2024, and in that way we can be more efficient, and not skip any steps, and be just as accurate as we always are and always need to be.”
Portillo reminded the public that official results will not be final until November 15 at 1 p.m. The next Clark County election update will not be posted until 10 p.m. Wednesday night and will include about 55,000 verified ballots including Election Day drop-off ballots, mail-in ballots, and cured ballots.
A total of 12,000 ballot signatures will also need to be cured by November 12. To cure a ballot a voter needs to verify or provide a signature to ensure their ballot is counted. Unlike other years, Poirtillo said the county is working to contact every voter with a ballot that needs to be cured. Voters who returned their ballots via mail or to an official county drop box should keep an eye out for messages from their County Clerk or Registrar, Portillo said.
“The cure process is very quick. Once we get that phone call the voter provides pertinent personal information that we can use to verify their identity, and then we can proceed. It doesn’t take long,” Portillo said.
Voters who need to cure their ballot can call the Clark County Election Office at 702-455-6552, or 455. Voters throughout the state can also cure their ballots and learn more about the signature curing process on Cure.NV.gov.
Portillo said there were “no major hiccups” on Election Day, and that “Everything went really smooth, as planned,” Portillo said. “Our team was well-prepared. Our systems were well-tested.”