Last Updated on November 10, 2022
Election officials Clark County, Nevada — the state’s most populous county that includes the Las Vegas area — have stated that they will need an additional three days to count upwards of 50,000 outstanding ballots. Mail-in ballots postmarked prior to election day can be counted if they arrive as late as Saturday, meaning that Nevada does not yet have a final count on the number of outstanding ballots. The state is home to one of the nation’s most closely watched races, as Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt currently leads incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in a race that could decide the balance of the U.S. Senate candidate.
Joe Gloria, Clark County’s registrar of voters, said at a press conference Thursday that a little more than 50,000 ballots still need to be counted.
“My staff has been working very diligently,” said Gloria. “We’ve been here from early in the morning until late at night. We’ve been fully staffed. We’re working as hard as we possibly can in order to get the ballots counted, but whether we like it or not there’s no way that we can move any faster than we’re currently moving.”
Clark County, Nevada has 50,000 ballots left to be tallied and it's going to take until Monday to finish counting them. pic.twitter.com/sJDspkvWWo
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 10, 2022
He added that the outstanding votes all represent mail-in ballots, which require election officials to individually match voters’ signatures on those ballots to the state’s records under Nevada election law. This, Gloria says, creates a multi-step that is slowing down the count.
The Clark County Elections department has sent out roughly 10,000 letters notifying mail-in voters whose ballots were either missing a signature or didn’t match their registration profile. Included in the in the letter is a set of instructions for voters to correct the issue and “cure” their ballots, which they will be able to do until 5 p.m. on Monday.
About 7,100 still had not been resolved as of Thursday, Gloria said.
This could further inflate the number of mail-in ballots that need to be counted, which heavily tilt Democrat. In addition, the state began the process in 2021 of mailing ballots to every registered voter in the state. Mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day can be counted if they arrive until Saturday so long as they were postmarked prior to Tuesday, November 8.
As Clark County officials state that it will take four additional days to count the ballots, Republicans have questioned how the process could take so long when larger states and even nations complete much larger counts in a shorter amount of time.
“How come Florida w/ population of 22 million can get same day election results and Arizona w/ population of 7 million can’t?” said Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren.
“Brazil, a country of 215 million, finished their vote count in one day. So did Florida, the third largest US state,” wrote former U.S. diplomat Alberto Miguel Fernandez in a tweet. “Counties in Arizona and Nevada seem to be looking forward to a long and leisurely holiday weekend before finishing their job. Incredible.”
Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt maintains a narrow lead as the unknown and potentially expanding number of Democrat favored mail-in ballots remain outstanding. Laxalt has expressed confidence, however, stating that he does not believe Cortez Masto will be able to make up the deficit.
“Clark County Clerk just reported there are just over 50K ballots left. This number includes Election Day drop off,” Laxalt wrote in a tweet Thursday evening. “We know there are rural and Washoe votes to be counted. Assuming these two at least offset, then Cortez Masto needs 63.5% to catch us. We remain very confident.”
Clark County Clerk just reported there are just over 50K ballots left. This number includes Election Day drop off. We know there are rural and Washoe votes to be counted. Assuming these two at least offset, then Cortez Masto needs 63.5% to catch us. We remain very confident.
— Adam Paul Laxalt (@AdamLaxalt) November 10, 2022
Clark County is also home to a number of close U.S. House races that have not yet been called.