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Thousands Of Votes Left Uncounted In Nevada Due To Invalid Signatures, Improperly Submitted Ballots

A Washoe County Registrar of Voters employee holding a stack of submitted mail-in primary ballots.
David Calvert
/
The Nevada Independent
Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office on June 8, 2020.

Lee en español.

Of the more than 490,000 ballots cast in Nevada’s primary election, 10,799 were unable to be counted statewide — most because of invalid signatures that voters failed to “cure.”

In total, 12,366 ballots statewide required a signature cure as a result of a missing signature or one that did not match the one filed with election officials, and 5,617 of those ballots were successfully cured, or resolved through follow-up. That left 6,749 ballots unable to be counted because voters did not complete the curing process.

“Failure to cure signature is by far the biggest reason a received ballot was not counted, but there are other reasons a ballot received by a county would not be counted,” Wayne Thorley, deputy secretary of state for elections, said in an email to The Nevada Independent on June 22.

Signature curingworks like this: Within 48 hours of the county becoming aware of a signature error on a ballot, voters are sent a letter letting them know they have to cure their signature, either by signing an unsigned ballot or fixing a mistake with the original signature. This can be done electronically or physically via fax, mail or hand-delivery.

Among the other reasons counties could not count the remaining 4,050 ballots were ballot return envelopes with multiple ballots inside, ballot return envelopes with no ballot included and ballots postmarked after the deadline. 

June’s primary election saw 29.5 percent turnout among registered voters, with more than 480,000 ballots counted; 98 percent of voters chose to cast their ballots by mail.

Not all counties were able to immediately provide further information on how many ballots in each county were not able to be counted and why.

Washoe County, which was able to provide numbers, had 2,431 total ballots that could not be counted. Of those, 1,331 were a result of voters failing to cure signatures, 1,053 were postmarked after Election Day, 32 did not include a ballot in the envelope, 13 did not present acceptable ID and two included more than one ballot in one envelope.

Visit The Nevada Independent for the complete story.

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