LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Andy Williams wasn’t intimated by the three-hour Election Day line outside of Pahrump community center, describing it as the price for having his voice heard, but Nevada legal observers are raising alarm about what caused the wait.
As a recent Pahrump resident, Williams noted the parallel between the longer lines and the expanding edges of the town.
“I think there is more people growing in this community,” he said. “I’ve seen more and more people coming into Pahrump. Maybe they’re somewhat not prepared for it—I don’t know—but I think everybody wanted to turn out and vote because it’s such a tight election.”
The lengthy Election Day wait time around 6 p.m. at the Pahrump Bob Ruud Community Center captured the attention of Jacob Smith, an ACLU of Nevada staff attorney, who explained to 8 News Now what raised alarm to him.
“At two points throughout the night [they ran] out of a certain number of paper ballots,” Smith said. “The clerk had to go back to the clerk’s office and for thirty minutes people were switched back to machine.”
Smith said the line started to move quicker as voters used one of the three voting machines available and the Nye County Clerk returned shortly after with more paper ballots. When the 7 p.m. deadline struck to close the line to newcomers, Smith said he witnessed someone was placed at the back of the line to ensure it was closed. Once the last vote was cast around 9:30 p.m. the ballots were then driven around 150 miles north to Tonopah to be counted.
“I think all the poll workers worked hard with everything they were given and worked diligently to get through as many voters as possible,” Smith said. “But if the county is going to make the decision to not use enough machines and continue an antiquated system, we are going to continue to see these delays.”
Arnold Knightly, the Nye County Public Communications Director, defended the efforts of poll workers in an email to 8 News Now and pointed to a different issue leading to longer lines.
“The main challenge came from the same-day registration of 174 people at the Pahrump polling location,” he wrote. “Also, the ballots are counted in the County Seat which is 167 miles north of Pahrump. We had no reports of malfunctioning voting machines. The majority used paper ballots.”
The increase in population in Pahrump also contributed to a possible issue. According to U.S. Census data the town seeing an increase of around 8,000 since 2010.
“The number of people voting in person was higher than anticipated but I believe that is statewide too,” Knightly wrote. “The Clerk does not believe the polling place in anywhere in the county was understaffed, including Pahrump.”
The most recent election summary report from Nye County shows 16,525 votes have been counted as of Wednesday. County officials are still counting the results in Tonopah.
