Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria gave a press conference this afternoon with an update on the remaining votes to count there. The county includes Las Vegas and is the most populous in the state by far. Gloria says that every in-person vote cast on Election Day has been counted. As of now, 27,418 mail-in ballots have been received but not counted. Gloria did not have an updated number for the amount of ballots that were picked up from drop boxes around the county yesterday, but he promised a number later today — that could also be in the tens of thousands. Mail-in ballots can be delivered until Saturday, and issues with mail-in ballots can be corrected, a process called curing, until Monday. Gloria also said Clark County had 5,555 provisional ballots it has yet to make a determination on.
Colton Lochhead of the Las Vegas Review-Journal also reported at least 57,000 ballots from Washoe County, which includes Reno, the second-largest city. Las Vegas and the surrounding metro area tends to favor Democrats, and the number of ballots already received and not counted far exceeds the current reported gap of 22,595 votes between Laxalt, who’s slightly ahead, and Cortez Masto. Cortez Masto won Clark County and barely lost Washoe County in 2016. The gap in the governor’s race between Lombardo, who is leading, and the Democratic incumbent Sisolak is larger, at 39,712. Gloria promised daily updates, but it may be days before we know the results of these key races.
Vote counting took days in Clark County in 2020, but that was the first year that all active voters were sent mail-in ballots. Registered voters were again sent mail-in ballots this year, so this process is relatively new. But we may not know who holds the balance of power in the Senate until those votes are counted.