Long lines, tech issues delayed vote counting in Nevada primary

Whereas nowhere close to the meme-inducing delays Nevada noticed in 2020, there was a palpable lag for these hitting the refresh button as they waited for the state’s 2022 major election outcomes Tuesday evening.

Some counties’ outcomes began to roll in late Tuesday evening and confirmed up on their respective web sites or dashboards round round 9:30 p.m. However the Nevada secretary of state’s election outcomes web page remained sparse for a lot of the evening.

Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin stated Wednesday that there have been a handful of things that contributed to delays, together with new election workers staff on the state and county ranges.

“Recognizing that there are a whole lot of new clerks, and quite a bit new workers in county workplaces, we needed to verify we have been correct greater than we have been speedy,” Wlaschin stated.

He additionally pointed to the state’s deliberate transfer to a top-down, state-led voter registration system within the coming years as one thing that may also assist easy out a few of these tough edges.

Nevada is one in all only a handful of states within the U.S. that makes use of a bottom-up voter registration system the place counties keep their very own voter lists after which ship that information to the secretary of state’s workplace each day. Shifting to top-down system the place the state manages the voter lists was authorised as a option to improve effectivity and consistency in terms of sustaining the voter rolls in addition to with the state’s same-day voter registration.

The legislation handed in 2021 to make that transition requires that swap to be accomplished by January of 2024, and Wlaschin stated the workplace is pushing to guarantee that’s prepared earlier than that yr’s presidential elections.

“Each election official is hungry for top-down system like nothing else. We all know that’s going to be an enormous assist,” he stated.

Classes realized

Wlaschin stated he expects the expertise gained by the newer election staff within the major will enable them to be extra environment friendly and cozy with the method when the final election rolls round this November.

Regardless of Nevada now having common mail-in ballots and two weeks of early voting, loads of Nevadans — practically 100,000, actually — nonetheless selected to solid their poll in-person on Election Day this major. That led to some prolonged traces at a handful of polling locations throughout the state which additionally delayed when preliminary vote tallies may even be launched to the general public.

Polls closed Tuesday evening in Nevada at 7 p.m., however anybody in line to vote by that point is allowed to solid their poll regardless of how lengthy that takes. Election outcomes can’t be launched till the ultimate vote within the state has been solid. Below the brand new legislation handed in 2021 that moved Nevada to everlasting common mail-in poll voting, counties can begin counting mail ballots obtained as much as 15 days earlier than the election.

Final voter standing

In Clark County, the ultimate voters completed round 8:30 p.m., stated county spokesman Dan Kulin. And in Incline Village, the ultimate voter didn’t solid their poll till shortly earlier than 9 p.m., stated Washoe County Communications Supervisor Bethany Drysdale.

Drysdale stated Washoe additionally had some technical points in importing the vote tallies to the county’s web site, which delayed the posting of their outcomes on-line by about an hour.

As for the ultimate vote tallies for Nevada’s 2022 primaries, these gained’t come for a number of days a minimum of since state legislation permits mail ballots that have been postmarked by Tuesday and obtained earlier than 5 p.m. Saturday to nonetheless be counted.

Drysdale stated Washoe obtained about 6,000 ballots within the mail on Wednesday, however added that there’s no means of realizing what number of extra will are available earlier than that deadline.

Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Observe @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.