Nearly a third of Nevada’s voters have voted; post office says get ballot mailed soon

With just over a week to go before Election Day and with ballots from nearly a third of the state’s registered voters already received, officials with the U.S. Postal Service are urging voters who plan to vote by mail to send their ballots off soon.

“As we anticipate an uptick of ballots in the mail over the coming days, Postal Service employees are working to ensure the ballots of every individual who chooses to vote by mail are delivered quickly and securely,” a press release said. “As in past elections, the Postal Service is ready to deliver your ballot on time. But don’t delay.”

The press release issued Monday comes as the secretary of state reported that Nevada voters had already returned 356,510 ballots — 339,244 of which were accepted by election offices — out of 1,993,201 ballots mailed out to registered voters.

Of that total, 7,508 were returned “undeliverable” or having a bad address, accounting for abut 0.4 percent of the total number of ballots mailed out. Another 2,684 were rejected by elections officials for, among other reasons, returning a ballot in the wrong envelope or returning the correct envelope without a ballot inside, according to the office of the secretary of state.

There were 6,660 mail ballots returned without a signature on the outside of the envelope or with a signature that doesn’t match the one on record. Those ballots can be counted, provided the voter responds to a request to “cure” their signature with elections officials by Nov. 12.

“If a question arises about your signature on the outside of your mail ballot return envelope or if you did not put your signature on the outside of that envelope, the Election Department will notify you using the contact information in your voter registration,” according to Clark County.

Nevadans can track their ballots at nevada.ballottrax.net. Clark County voters can check online if their ballots have been received at clarkcountynv.gov/government/departments/elections/voter_services.php. The Clark County service also allows locals to review registration information and make changes to it.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo told reporters that she encourages anyone with questions to call the Elections Department at 702-455-8683.

The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday ruled that mail-in ballots arriving up to three days after Election Day without a postmark can be counted up to three days after Election Day. Republicans had sued to challenge the practice.

Mail ballots with clear postmarks showing it was mailed on or before Nov. 5 can be accepted up to four days after Election Day.

Nevada voter breakdown

As of Monday, registered Democrats had returned 141,587 mail and EASE ballots that had been accepted by elections officials, compared with 106,242 registered Republicans and 95,580 nonpartisan or minor party voters.

State data also shows that 149,475 registered Republicans had participated in early voting, compared with 82,055 registered Democrats and 69,410 nonpartisan or minor party voter voters.

Combined, the state’s Monday data showed elections officials have received 255,717 ballots from Republicans, 223,642 from Democrats and 163,990 from nonpartisan or minor party voters.

In Clark County, 439,930 voters had cast ballots, a total that represented 31.1 percent of the county’s registered voters. Statewide voter participation so far is at 32.6 percent, according to the state data.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.