Clark County says it found over 1,600 uncounted mail ballots

Clark County elections officials discovered more than 1,600 mail ballots that hadn’t been tabulated for the Nov. 5 election, the county announced Friday.

The ballots were found Thursday during preparation for the canvass of the elections required to take place Friday. Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo said 1,608 mail ballots were received on time, secured and processed but not tabulated, according to a letter the county wrote in a letter to the secretary of state’s office.

The ballots were ones that had to go through the duplication process, which is what happens when mail ballots cannot be read by the electronic readers because they are either torn or folded too much, Portillo previously told the Review-Journal when explaining the entire process.

During that stage, a bipartisan team puts the ballot in a machine that duplicates the ballot into one that is readable with the exact same information.

The mail ballots have since been tabulated and counted, and the addition of votes did not change the outcome in any race, according to the county.

The unofficial results have been updated and reviewed by Portillo, and the results are ready for certification, the county wrote.

“The County remains committed to safe and secure elections and as a result will be issuing an audit in collaboration with the State of Nevada, Secretary of State’s Office,” the county said.

Clark County was unable to provide any additional information about how exactly the mistake occurred.

9,000 ballots tossed

Over 9,000 mail ballots were tossed in the Nov. 5 election due to a lack of signature cure.

Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said in a statement that it is “very disappointing,” that 9,174 Nevadans did not have their votes counted.

“Signature verification and curing are important elements of keeping our elections secure, but we can’t lose sight of every eligible voter’s fundamental right to have their ballot counted,” he said in the statement.

Aguilar said his office did everything it could to support the signature cure process, including sending cards to every active voter encouraging them to update their signature and a text message campaign to all voters who required a cure. He encouraged voters to check and update their contact information on VOTE.NV.gov to prepare for the 2026 election.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.