LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — More than 11,500 Nevada voters needed to verify their identities as of Friday or their votes will not be counted — the 2022 U.S. Senate race was called with a smaller margin.
Nevada clerks had processed 467,280 mail-in ballots as of Friday morning, according to data from the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office. About 2% of those ballots — 11,538 — needed to be cured to be counted.
That total — 8,341 ballots needing verification–– is more than Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won in her race in 2022. Cortez Masto won by 7,928 – or about 1%. As more mail-in ballots are processed, the number of ballots needing verification will likely surpass the margin Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo won in his 2022 race – 15,386 votes – or about 1.5%.
As of Friday, Clark County had processed more than 321,000 mail-in ballots, according to data 8 News Now reviewed. Of those hundreds of thousands of ballots, 7,933 voters needed to verify their signatures; 408 ballots had no signature at all.
About 8,400 Nevada voters had already fixed their signature issues, data said.
In 2022, 7,074 ballots statewide needing a signature cure were not counted — 3% of the total of mail-in ballots.
The Clark County Election Department will notify voters if there is an issue with their signature, however, a voter must have a phone number or email on file to be notified. Voters have until 5 p.m. on the sixth day after Election Day to provide a signature confirmation, Nevada law states — with the Veterans Day holiday, that date this year is Tuesday, Nov. 12.
Clark County voters can see if the county has counted their mail-in ballot under the “Registered Voter Services” section of the election department’s website. The county can also be reached at 702-455-VOTE (8683).
Nye County voters can call 775-482-8134.
Close margins often decide Nevada elections. In 2020, President Joe Biden won by about 33,000 votes.
