It takes a long time to process mail ballots. That’s why election results for the June primary weren’t available for days, even though just 30 percent of eligible voters participated.
Bethany Drysdale with Washoe County said they’re expecting double that turnout on Nov. 3, so they’re asking voters to either send in or drop off their mail ballots well ahead of time.
“We don’t want to be last! We don’t want to be made fun of for being the last county counting our ballots,” she said.
Clark County can process ballots 24 hours a day. But Drysdale said Washoe just doesn’t have the same capacity, so she urges voters to not let their ballot sit around collecting dust.
“If we get tens of thousands of ballots on Election Day, it’s going to take a long time to count them, and that’s going to be a problem,” she said. “We really want results early and fast, and you can help us do that.”
Drysdale added that early voting, or early ballot drop off, can give voters more time to verify their identities in case their signature doesn’t match previous years. It also avoids issues with late postmarks, which disqualified hundreds of ballots during the primary.
“Those 1,800 voters deserved to have their ballots counted, and they didn’t, because they were dropped off too late,” Drysdale said.
Residents can always vote in-person, too. Either on Election Day, or during early voting, which lasts Oct. 17 through 30.
