About 80% of Nevada’s 2022 Senate ballots were cast early or absentee
Nevada voters will elect federal, state and local officeholders in Tuesday’s midterm election. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time — 10 p.m. Eastern — and state law requires them to stay open until every voter in line at closing time has cast a ballot, the Associated Press reported in its Election Day guide to Nevada, written by Camille Baker.
The AP said it will provide vote results and declare winners in races for governor, U.S. House, mayor of Henderson, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, statewide ballot measures, state Supreme Court, state Senate, state Assembly, controller and state treasurer.
The state’s most recent midterm baseline was about 1 million votes, cast in Nevada’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, according to the AP. About 80% of all ballots in that election were cast early or by absentee ballot.
The AP Decision Team outlined the data points it will monitor as votes are tallied, starting with how counties release their results. Every Nevada county is expected to release at least some early in-person or mail voting results at the start of the night, and about half of the counties are expected to release all or almost all of their mail voting results.
Nearly every county is expected to release all or almost all in-person early voting results in the first update, the AP said. About half of the counties, however, are not expected to release any in-person Election Day results in that first update.
In Clark and Washoe counties, the first vote update of the night tends to include all early in-person voting results and partial mail voting results, before any in-person Election Day results are released.
Nevada’s 2024 general election offers a benchmark for the pace of the count. The first results in that election were reported starting at 12:54 a.m. Eastern on Nov. 6, about three hours after polls closed. The state reached 50% of votes reporting less than 10 minutes later, at 1:02 a.m. Eastern, and 90% at 8:26 p.m. Eastern later that day, according to the AP.
The Associated Press does not make projections. It declares a winner only when it determines there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap.
If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP said it will make clear that it has not declared a winner and explain why.
Recounts in Nevada are not automatic. A candidate may request one and pay for it regardless of the vote margin. The AP said it may declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
The AP’s advance vote tracker carries the latest advance vote totals for Nevada ahead of election night.