‘Administrative errors and confusion’: Governor calls on lawmakers to speed up election certification process

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Election reform is on the table as Nevada finally certified the 2024 election results Tuesday. Certifying the election is part of a long process that leads to the electoral college confirming the results next month. But changes could be coming to the way the state counts its votes in future elections.

No more waiting on Nevada.

That seems to be Governor Joe Lombardo’s goal after the Silver State took its time counting those votes.

Now we know why, according to Secretary of State, Cisco Aguilar.

“First, let me start by addressing the obvious. It has been a challenging election cycle,” Secretary Aguilar said.

Those challenges played out on a national stage, as Nevada was one of the last states to be called. Now the governor is calling for change after the Nevada Supreme Court certified the general election saying in a statement, “The time it takes to count ballots and finalize our elections in Nevada is simply unacceptable. Nevadans deserve timely election results, and all ballots should be received by election day.”

That’s what the governor wants in the future. That’s not what’s happening now.

Especially since mail-in voting proved to be the most popular way to cast a ballot this year as 45% of Nevadans mailed it in, 37% voted early, and 18% voted on election day.

Mail-in ballots that are postmarked on or before the day of the election and received by the fourth day after election day are accepted and processed.

That led to a backlog of votes to count.

Secretary of State, Cisco Aguilar seems open to changing things up for next time. “We have a responsibility to start to build that capacity to ensure we are processing mail ballots in a way that gives us the opportunity to provide the results as close to election night as possible,” Aguilar said.

Since Secretary Aguilar doesn’t want states waiting on Nevada anymore, he suggested a few changes.

“We are all determined to make improvements and suggest legislative steps to ensure our elections remain free and fair, with a focus on continuously improving the voter experience,” Secretary Aguilar said.

But Aguilar admits there were some snafus that led to delayed results among a lot of first-time election officials.

“They continue to deal with the rapid turnover of staff, in an increasingly complex requirement. Those requirements and turnover led to administrative errors and confusion,” Secretary Aguilar said.

Governor Lombardo says ballot issues should be immediately addressed in the next legislative session. That begins in February 2025.

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