LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Mail ballots have been showing up in Las Vegas mailboxes for several days now, and many voters have already returned and filled them out in advance of the primary election June 9.
During a tour of the Clark County elections department headquarters in North Las Vegas on Wednesday, elections officials showed reporters the process through which mail-in ballots flow.
First, the ballots are scanned to see if the voter's signature on the outside of the envelope matches the one on file with the county. If it does, the ballot is removed and set aside to be tabulated.
WATCH | Steve Sebelius visits the Clark County elections department headquarters
If not, a team of two people — they can't be of the same political party — examine the signature on the envelope and the one on file. If they reject it, the ballot is sent for "curing," in which county officials call, email or text the voter to verify he or she actually sent their ballot.
Elections officials stress it's important to sign the outside of your mail ballot and to be sure to only mail one ballot per envelope.
It's also important, if you receive a letter, call, email or text from the Clark County elections department, to follow up with the county and don't disregard it as spam or an identity theft scheme. Voters can always reach the county elections department at 702-455-VOTE (8683), but questions about signature curing should be directed to 702-455-CURE (2873).
"It's very exciting, the primary election has kicked off, and we're really excited about everything we have done until this day," said Lorena Portillo, the Clark County registrar of voters. "So we're really excited to get to this point, because we've worked really hard. Staff has worked really hard. We have an amazing staff, and they really are dedicated to making sure the voters feel confident and ready for vote day."
Mail-in ballots can be dropped in any mailbox, and must be postmarked by primary Election Day, June 9, in order to be counted. Mail-in ballots can also be dropped into any ballot drop box at any voting center in Clark County during early voting (May 23-June 5) or on Election Day (June 9).
Still, officials encourage voters to return their mail-in ballots as soon as possible to ensure they arrive in time to be counted.
Nevada has been criticized in the past — including by Gov. Joe Lombardo — because ballots that are postmarked by Election Day can be received up to four days later, delaying final unofficial election results until the week following Election Day.
Although Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar says nearly all ballots are in and most counted on Election Day, the results of very close contests can take days to determine.
Portillo says the county has all the equipment and people it needs to efficiently process ballots when they're verified.
"We definitely have what we need for this election cycle," she said. "We always make sure we do have more than we need. We have the machines, we have the equipment, tabulation machines, just for the mail ballot readers alone, we had six working in the general election in 2024. Now we have eight, so we're always improving, always enhancing our equipment, making things more efficient."
Nevada voters are also concerned about election security. In 2024, a voter-initiated constitutional amendment to require an ID to vote was passed with more than 73% of the vote. If it's passed again in November, it will take effect for elections in 2028.
But reports of misdirected ballots abound.
Channel 13 viewer Russ Lorenzen told us in March that he'd been receiving political fliers and official election mail at his home for nearly 30 years addressed to the former owner. He said he threw most of it away, but contacted the secretary of state's office after he saw Aguilar on TV touting the safety and security of Nevada's elections.
The office told him he should have written "return to sender" or "addressee no longer lives at address" on the official election mail, or to fill out a form alerting authorities to a discrepancy.
"Why is it my responsibility to keep track of voters? Isn't that kind of your job?" Lorenzen says he remembers thinking. "You're giving me a hard time when I'm trying to tell you here there's a problem and it's like, 'oh, well, you should have filled out this form.' I didn't know the form existed. You're telling me that after four years and then eight years you automatically delete it out? I'm like, OK for 29 years it slipped through the system."
Lorenzen says he finally did fill out a "residency discrepancy report" and mailed it to the county, but it may not have arrived in time. Elections officials are prohibited from removing voters from the rolls 90 days before an election.
But Portillo stressed that if you're receiving official election mail at your home addressed to someone else, you should alert the county so officials can begin the process of updating records.
"I would like voters to know if they get any election mail from us that's official election mail, to reach out to us," she said. "Please reach out to us, give us that time to make sure we research the information and update our records, absolutely. We want our records to be updated at all times, as much as possible."
Aguilar's office announced last week that the last time records were maintained, nearly 120,000 voters were moved from "active" status to "inactive," which means a postcard sent to their last known address has been returned as undeliverable, or that they have not voted in two consecutive general elections.
In addition, more than 7,500 voter registrations statewide were canceled. which means a person would have to re-register in order to cast a ballot.
If you have questions about your registration, or need to update your address, you can look up your voter records on either the county or the state's website.
If you have a question about elections, voting or politics in general, you can ask Steve by sending an email to Steve.Sebelius@ktnv.com or by clicking the banner below.
