The Secretary of State of Nevada, Cisco Aguilar, has recommended that election officials in the state begin tabulating in-person Election Day votes as they come in, rather than waiting for polls to close. This change is aimed at getting election results out quicker and could help alleviate anxiety over close races in the state. The recommendations also include tabulating mail ballots as early voting is underway, applying to both the primary on June 11 and the November general election. Results will not be released until after the polls close, but this new process will allow for more data to be released quickly to the public.
In Nevada, every voter automatically receives a mail-in ballot, unless they opt out of the system. These mail-in ballots can arrive at county election offices up to four days after Election Day, but must be postmarked on or before Election Day. The process of counting mail ballots is lengthier due to verification steps in place to prevent fraud, such as matching ballots to the voter registration database and verifying signatures or identification information. Pressure to have election results out quickly has escalated since the 2020 election, with former President Donald Trump casting doubt on the process. However, counting a large number of ballots is a time-consuming process for election officials.
Election officials in Nevada’s Washoe and Clark counties have outlined plans to expedite the processing of ballots. Clark County has increased its mail ballot readers to six from four in 2020, with the capacity to tabulate 8,000 ballots per hour. Similarly, they have increased the number of machines to tabulate in-person ballots on Election Day. Washoe County is also upgrading its mail balloting processing room to sort ballots more efficiently. Both counties are implementing measures to ensure a quicker processing of ballots and increase the capacity of the elections departments as their populations grow.
In the wake of the 2020 election, where doubts were cast on the legitimacy of mail-in voting, Nevada’s election officials are taking steps to improve the efficiency of their election processes. By allowing in-person Election Day votes to be tabulated as they come in and counting mail ballots during early voting, they hope to release results more quickly. Despite the pressure to expedite results, election officials across the country must follow specific rules and processes to ensure a fair and accurate outcome. The changes being implemented in Nevada aim to strike a balance between efficiency and accuracy in the election process.
