County employees and volunteers were working in overdrive today to tally ballots still coming in to the county past tonight’s 7 p.m. closure of polling locations.
About 213,000 of Washoe County’s more than 300,000 voters had cast their ballots by the time Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula gave her last update tonight at 7:30. The registrar said she was hopeful the county would see voter turnout in the neighborhood of 90%.
But election results were not to be had as early as she had predicted during earlier briefings as some polls in Clark County—home to more than two-thirds of all Nevada voters—were allowed to stay open an hour later as a result of a decision made by Nevada District Court Judge Joe Hardy.
Hardy extended hours for two dozen polling sites in Clark County until 8 p.m. The Trump campaign filed suit for the extension after polling sites in Clark County were delayed in opening as a result of technical issues. The list of polling places with extended hours included locations requested by Democrats.
No results can be released in any of Nevada’s counties until the last polling place has closed across the state. The extension was expected to delay Nevada election results by at least an hour. As of 8:30 p.m., no results had been reported.
Nevada, with its six electoral votes, is “one of the battleground states to watch” but final results for the presidential race may not be called tonight.
Clark County Registrar of Voters Joseph Gloria and Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske were both named in a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign and the Nevada Republican Party that was dismissed on Monday and affirmed today. The suit alleged a lack of transparency and the hindering of election observation activities in the processing of ballots in Carson City.
Spikula has said repeatedly that she cannot speak to the litigation between Clark County and the Trump campaign but hopes that efforts to create transparency in Washoe County’s ballot processing process have been successful.
The county has been livestreaming ballot processing since 2018, but Spikula said she believes this practice is more important now than ever. Election Night ballot processing can be watched live on the county’s YouTube channel.
Check back for updates from This Is Reno on unofficial election results. Official results for local, state and federal races will be announced on Nov. 16, following the canvass of the vote.
