Nevada's top election official says no voter should wait five hours as Clark County defends its Election Day staffing

What happened

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said Wednesday that "Nevadans deserve better" after long waits at polling places, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The lines also pushed back the release of preliminary statewide results until just before midnight Tuesday.

In a statement reported by the Review-Journal, Aguilar praised voters for showing up but said "no voter should have to wait in line for five hours." He said his office is ready to help officials from any county "willing to take ownership and confront these issues head-on."

Why results were delayed statewide

According to the Secretary of State's office, voting in every Nevada county except Clark County ended by 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. The last voter in the state cast a ballot at Brinley Middle School in Las Vegas shortly before midnight, the Review-Journal reported.

State law bars the state from reporting election results until every voter in Nevada has finished voting. That meant the wait in Clark County held up results for the entire state. Earlier coverage described how Clark County voting lines stretched for hours on Election Day.

State reviewing the data

Aguilar said the state's improved election system gives officials insight into the voting process across Nevada. He said his staff had been reviewing data since Tuesday night and would share what it learns with counties to help keep the problem from happening again, the Review-Journal reported.

Clark County's response

Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo said at a Wednesday news conference that the county reviews its entire process after every election, including equipment, analytics and voter sentiment. "The lines at some of our locations this year were unfortunate," she said, according to the Review-Journal.

Portillo said voting sites were staffed and supplied with machines based on turnout at those locations in past elections. The county ran 136 polling locations on Election Day with about 5,000 voting machines, 2,300 check-in pads and about 500 tabulators.

A long ballot

Portillo pointed to the size of this year's ballot. She said the two-card ballot, with 142 contests and 254 candidates, was unique to Clark County and added to the time it took voters to make their choices at polling sites.

How turnout compared with 2022

Mail and early voting in Clark County rose compared with the 2022 midterm, while Election Day in-person voting stayed almost flat, the Review-Journal reported. Portillo said about 146,000 people voted Tuesday and about 220,000 voted during two weeks of in-person early voting. State data shows those figures were 146,998 and 196,181 four years ago.

Election workers had processed 378,000 mail ballots as of Wednesday morning, with more still coming in, Portillo said. In 2022, the county tallied 340,508 mail ballots in total.

Mail ballots and signature cures

Nevada accepts mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day for up to four days after the election. Ballots without a legible postmark are accepted for up to three days, according to the Review-Journal.

Portillo said about 4,800 ballots need signature verification, a process called curing. Affected voters have until 5 p.m. Monday to act. She urged anyone who received a message from the Clark County Election Department to respond quickly and call 702-455-CURE. More on the count is in our coverage of Clark County's mail ballot processing and on our elections page.

What to watch next

• About 4,800 Clark County voters have until 5 p.m. Monday to cure signature issues on their mail ballots by calling 702-455-CURE.
• Clark County is still processing mail ballots, with more expected beyond the 378,000 counted as of Wednesday morning.
• The Secretary of State's office says it will share what it learns from its review of Election Day data with counties.
• Clark County says it will analyze its equipment, analytics and voter sentiment as part of its post-election review.