Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula provided an update on the county’s elections late in the afternoon on Wednesday, though an unofficial calling of the presidential election in Nevada is not expected from the Nevada Secretary of State’s website until sometime on Thursday.
Spikula said Washoe County will be updating new numbers tomorrow, possibly at 10 a.m.
Asked about a press release issued earlier in the day by the Nevada Republican Party alleging thousands of voter complaints, Spikula said she was unaware of any issues. A small group of Trump supporters showed up today at the Washoe County complex alleging fraud.
The Nevada Republican Party claimed it received thousands of complaints concerning issues during the General Election and that it is investigating each of them. However, most of these alleged complaints appear to be associated with voting in Clark County.
In the press release from the Nevada GOP, Donald Trump Campaign Co-Chair Adam Laxalt is quoted as saying, “The fact remains that hundreds of thousands of ballots have been counted in Clark County and as a Judge and the Secretary of State have confirmed we have not been allowed to observe or challenge a single signature match for these votes. With the issues that have been reported regarding the election, we are now more than ever concerned with the lack of the transparency in observing and challenging possible invalid ballots.”
As with the Secretary of State, the next update for unofficial election results on the county’s website is not expected until tomorrow morning, Spikula said.
My understanding is that there are some citizens who have come to the complex at Ninth and Wells who have questions about the processing of ballots, more or less.”
While an update was expected at 10 a.m. this morning, Spikula said this was just a communication error. Her office had reported everything that had come in up until its closing last night. From here out, she said, her office will be providing 10 a.m. updates that correspond to the previous day’s tallying.
“We are processing ballots,” she said. “We did receive about 9,000 ballots that came in on Election Day. They’re currently being processed and tallied. Daily updates on tally results will be provided by 10 a.m. up until the canvass of the vote and the release of results on Nov. 16.”
Spikula said her office has seen about four times as many absentee and mail-in ballots this year than in any year past. She added that the number of ballots received, however, should be no problem for her office to tally in time for tomorrow’s update. She said her office can tabulate up to 20,000 ballots in a day.
Spikula’s office has more than 5,000 provisional ballots that were provided in person. Those will have to wait until the last mail-in ballot has been counted to ensure that none of the provisional ballots received were cast by voters who’d already participated in the election.
“We want to make sure that, again, we’re verifying eligibility… and making sure all eligible votes are going to be cast,” Spikula said.
Voters who want the latest information on Washoe County election results or on the status of their ballots are advised to visit the registrar’s website in lieu of the secretary of state’s office, for the time being, because it is currently turning out this information more quickly.
In the meantime, the registrar’s office will continue tallying some ballots up until Nov. 13.
The canvass of the votes will continue to be livestreamed on the county’s website.
Concerns have been raised about the potential of protesters showing up at the county complex where ballots are being tallied. Benjamin West, county security administrator, said this has not been a concern.
“There were reports, and my understanding is that there are some citizens who have come to the complex at Ninth and Wells who have questions about the processing of ballots, more or less,” he said. “They were planning to come down to the Registrar of Voters office to find out answers to those questions. They have not caused any issues.”
West said people with questions and concerns about ballot tallying will be allowed access to the county complex and “hopefully have their questions answered in a timely manner.”
