Just over three-quarters of registered voters in Nevada cast ballots in the last two presidential election cycles – 77% in 2016 and 78% in 2020.

A similar turnout this year would mean that about two-thirds of Nevadans who vote will have already done so, while at least half a million more will vote either in person on Election Day Tuesday or by mail. ‘here there.

Just over half — 50.4% — of Nevada’s eligible voters had cast ballots by the end of the day Friday, the last day of in-person early voting.

Cumulative turnout by mail and in person during this year’s early voting period was somewhat less widespread than four years ago, when 56% of the electorate had voted by the end of early voting, according to turnout reports from the Nevada Secretary of State.

Of the more than 542,000 in-person early voters, 45.5% were Republicans and 27.7% were Democrats.

26.8% of votes were cast by others, including nonpartisans — a group that would make up the state’s largest political party if they were a party — as well as a much smaller number of Nevadans belonging to third parties.

Of the 483,171 ballots received Friday, 40.2% were sent by Democrats, 30.3% by Republicans and 29.4% by others.

Of the total of just over 1 million votes – by mail and in person – cast during the early voting period, Republicans accounted for 38.4%, compared to 33.6% for Democrats and 28%. for non-partisans/other parties.

The Secretary of State’s office will continue to release absentee vote totals each day through Election Day.

In this year’s June primaries, most mail-in ballots were received the day after Election Day because many people drop off their ballots by mail or in a mailbox on Election Day.

So far, so good

“The process has gone smoothly,” Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said in a press briefing Friday, and his office is “we expect the same thing until election day.

He said there had been no cases requiring the use of a new law. enacted during the 2023 legislative session protect election workers from intimidation and election interference.

Mail-in ballots are already counted and county election officials can begin counting in-person votes the morning of Election Day.

This means that by the close of polls on Tuesday, all early and absentee ballots received before Election Day may have been counted, and the first announcement of results could include a much larger batch of votes than was the case in the past.

In 2020, Nevada’s presidential race was not called by media decision desks until the Saturday after Election Day, due to the narrow margins separating Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the large number of ballots cast by mail which had not been counted at the end of polling day. .

THE new procedures make managers optimistic that Nevada’s results won’t take that long this year. One of those officials is Lorena Portillo, the registrar of voters in Clark County, home to 72 percent of Nevada’s registered voters.

At the press conference Friday, Aguilar and his team emphasized that voting machines are not connected to the internet and therefore ballots must be physically transported to the county election office. This was highlighted to address security concerns, but also to highlight the delay in vote counting on Election Day, when ballots are transported from remote rural polling stations to county seats.

Despite new procedures designed to speed up the release of results, this does not guarantee that the winners of close races will be known on election night, a point underscored by the volume of absentee ballots received on Election Day itself, but which were not counted until later during the primary.

Aguilar encouraged voters to update their contact information at vote.nv.gov so counties can contact them directly if their signature is not accepted or if there are other issues.

Aguilar also joked that his goal is for Nevada’s election to go so smoothly that no one outside of Nevada knows who he is.