Ballot processing at the Registrar of Voters office began on Tuesday according to Deputy Registrar of Voters Andrew McDonald, who on Tuesday updated Washoe’s Board of County Commissioners on election activities since the start of early voting. Two dozen locations opened last Saturday, Oct. 19, and since then more than 24,000 voters have cast their ballot in person. 

The 19-person staff at the Registrar of Voters (ROV) office has swollen to nearly 700 with the addition of 652 election workers to help staff polling locations and sort and process ballots. In addition to the 24 early vote locations, they’ll staff 55 Election Day vote centers. 

Washoe County voters this year will decide 40 different contests among 80 candidates and vote yes or no on seven state questions and one from the county. 

“if you go to the website it will tell you where there is no wait or where the waits are shorter. Please do yourself a favor and check the website, it works.”  

McDonald provided commissioners with a detailed description of the new equipment available at the ROV, including Poll Pads for voter check-in, ballot sorters and the updated VREMS statewide voter system. He also described the equipment testing his office performs, which includes accuracy tests. 

“There’s a lot of testing that goes into this election, pre- and post-, to make sure that it’s on the up-and-up,” he said. “All this is visible to the public if they want to watch and see.”

While many of the processes in the ROV are automated, such as sorting and opening ballots, McDonald said his team is manually verifying every signature on the mail-in ballots. He said there’s an automated system that could be used, but at the moment they are keeping up with the volume and will continue with manual verification. 

As of Monday evening, more than 38,816 mail-in ballots have been returned to the ROV, and an updated tally is being kept on the county’s website. Through Wednesday, more than 24,000 people have voted in-person. 

Some residents reported long lines at several early voting locations. The top locations are the South Valleys, Spanish Springs, North Valleys and Northwest library branches and Reno Town Mall. Those who want to avoid the lines can check the county’s website for updated wait times. County Manager Eric Brown said those times are updated every 30 minutes and are accurate. 

“I would emphatically reiterate to the public to go to the website and see what the wait times are,” Brown said. “Spanish Springs, South Valleys, Northwest: they’re going to have lines, and if you go to the website it will tell you where there is no wait or where the waits are shorter. Please do yourself a favor and check the website, it works.”  

McDonald said his team has also fielded more than 1,000 calls to the call center and the vote center hotline. They’ve also had 142 people observing election processes at the ROV.

Safety and security a priority

In addition to increasing technology, the ROV also increased security for the safety of poll workers and staff. 

“Physical security due to the disinformation and misinformation needed to be ramped up,” McDonald said. “We do work with local law enforcement … to secure our election.”

He said physical security includes the support of the Reno and Sparks police, Washoe County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Workers at every polling location also have panic buttons that connect with local emergency dispatch.

Polling locations are secured nightly, either locked up in a facility or the equipment is sealed, he said. There’s also a livestream on YouTube with multiple angles of the ROV’s ballot processing room that anyone can watch online. None of the voting and ballot processing systems are ever connected to the internet either. 

Commissioner Jeanne Herman, who has pressed for the commission to review and approve an election resolution pushing a number of illegal measures in the name of “election integrity,” was not present for McDonald’s presentation. Commissioner Mike Clark, who has supported Herman’s proposal, complained about the security of local elections and joined Herman in June to vote against the canvass of the votes, had few questions for McDonald. 

What to expect in the days ahead

Residents can still register to vote in person at voting locations or online at the Secretary of State’s website. Results won’t begin to be reported until after the last voter in Nevada votes. The first set of results will only include early voting and mail-in ballots, followed by Election Day results. Subsequent updates will cover mail-in and provisional ballots.

“On election night, the frequency in my book, should be hour by hour, if not earlier,” McDonald said of what he’d like the community to see when watching for updates on the election results. “Even if the number on the needle only changes by 200 votes, we need to let people know we are working back there.” 

Following Election Day, McDonald said he could provide daily updates to commissioners until results begin to trickle in. “We want results out just as fast as you do,” he added. 

Commissioners are scheduled to canvass the votes on Nov. 15.