{"id":2244903,"date":"2024-05-15T08:14:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-nevadas-biggest-county-nearly-40000-ballots-counted-despite-arriving-after-election-day-2022\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T08:23:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T12:23:43","slug":"in-nevadas-biggest-county-nearly-40000-ballots-counted-despite-arriving-after-election-day-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-nevadas-biggest-county-nearly-40000-ballots-counted-despite-arriving-after-election-day-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"In Nevada&#8217;s largest county, almost 40,000 ballots counted post-election"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-nevadas-biggest-county-nearly-40000-ballots-counted-despite-arriving-after-election-day-2022%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2244903&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article delves into the impact of post-Election Day mail ballots in Nevada&#8217;s 2022 vote count, specifically\u200d in Clark County. Nearly\u200b 40,000\u2063 ballots arrived late but \u200cwere counted, shaping the election outcome. The\u200c contentious issue of ballot harvesting\u200c and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ohio-supreme-court-clears-the-way-for-current-congressional-map-to-be-used-in-2024\/\" title=\"Ohio's Supreme Court approves the use of current congressional map in 2024.\">legal challenges surrounding<\/a> the grace period for accepting mail-in ballots post-election are highlighted, sparking debate on election integrity.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>As a Nevada law allowing mail ballots received up to four days after Election Day to be counted faces a legal challenge, a fresh look at Nevada\u2019s 2022 vote count reveals the potentially election-flipping number of mail ballots that were counted despite arriving after Election Day. In just Clark County, nearly 40,000 mail ballots were counted that arrived in the days after voting supposedly ended, roughly 5 percent of the county\u2019s total ballot count. <\/p>\n<p>In that same election, Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt led Democrat incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto on election night but eventually lost by less than 8,000 votes statewide. For comparison, two years prior, Joe Biden narrowly beat Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election in Nevada by 33,596 votes. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1177668937\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c49264abcb48657acdaab93ab0c1a3f8 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c49264abcb48657acdaab93ab0c1a3f8\"><\/div>\n<p>In the closing days of battleground Nevada\u2019s crucial 2022 U.S. Senate race, Laxalt pulled ahead of incumbent Cortez Masto. On Oct. 21, leftist organ Politico <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/10\/21\/nevada-senate-race-dead-heat-00062850\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fretted over<\/a> news that Laxalt had \u201cinched ahead\u201d of Cortez Masto as a \u201cbad sign\u201d for Dems, considering the former Nevada attorney general was down by 3 points a month earlier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCortez Masto was long seen as the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the Senate, the most likely to fall should a \u2018red wave\u2019 sweep the country and punish Democrats this midterm season,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/23425137\/midterm-elections-2022-nevada-senate-cortez-masto-adam-laxalt\">wrote<\/a> Vox senior politics reporter Christian Paz shortly after the election.  <\/p>\n<p>But the wave never materialized for Republicans in a midterm election that was supposed to be a referendum on an extremely unpopular president. While the GOP won back the House by a paper thin majority, the Senate remained in Democrat control and the many races that were \u201csupposed\u201d to go red, didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n<p>In Nevada, there was plenty of time to staunch the wave. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1dd2bcc5c879957f1becfed289f7dee8 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1dd2bcc5c879957f1becfed289f7dee8\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Days of Counting<\/h2>\n<p>Laxalt appeared to lead comfortably on election night, but the counting was far from over. Thanks to the Silver State\u2019s law allowing mail-in ballots to be counted up to four days after the election if postmarked on Election Day, the votes kept coming \u2014 and they kept coming en masse for Cortez Masto. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know of several [Republican] candidates who went to bed on election night winning and then a week later they had lost,\u201d Devin Livziey, vice chairman of the <a href=\"https:\/\/clarkcountyrepublicanparty.com\/about-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Clark County Republican Party,<\/a> told The Federalist. <\/p>\n<p>Most of the late but legal arrivals were coming from Clark and Washoe counties, home to Las Vegas and Reno, respectively. The counties make up roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/silverstateelection.nv.gov\/vote-turnout\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">90 percent<\/a> of Nevada\u2019s voting population, and Clark County leans heavily Democrat. <\/p>\n<p>The night after Election Day, Laxalt was sill feeling confident, tweeting that even if his opponent won 63 percent of the outstanding Clark County votes, \u201cshe would still lose.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-de676336b1d4d94e033fa4126a197e03 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-de676336b1d4d94e033fa4126a197e03\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"XjKeSvIuCQ0RacwhsLWZEPt4pml89VO6\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Of the 84,000 votes left to count in Clark County, Cortez Masto could win 63% of them and she would still lose.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t even take into account the gains we will make from rural counties.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Paul Laxalt (@AdamLaxalt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamLaxalt\/status\/1590513486677037056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 10, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>But the post-Election Day votes were adding up. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn Wednesday afternoon and evening, several Nevada counties reported updated results accounting for thousands of mail ballots, including more than 14,000 in Clark County and 20,000 in Washoe County,\u201d the Nevada Independent <a href=\"https:\/\/thenevadaindependent.com\/article\/2022-election-live-blog-will-rain-snow-affect-election-day-turnout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>. \u201cThree rural counties \u2014 Lyon, Nye and Douglas \u2014 also reported more votes collectively totaling about 11,000 ballots.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Three days after Election Day, <a href=\"https:\/\/thenevadaindependent.com\/article\/2022-election-live-blog-will-rain-snow-affect-election-day-turnout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to the publication,<\/a> Laxalt led Cortez Masto by fewer than 9,000 votes. When the dust settled on the elongated election week, the Democrat had the ballots she needed to win by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nvsos.gov\/silverstate2022gen\/USSenate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> less than 8,000 votes<\/a>, or less than eight-tenths of a percentage point. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Election Day Hangover<\/h2>\n<p>Last week, Nevada Independent reporter Tabitha Mueller <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tabitha_mueller\/status\/1788645971519471930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reminded<\/a> her followers on X just how significant the Election Day hangover was for the outcome of the 2022 general election. She noted records from the secretary of state that showed the number of mail ballots that came in during the four days after Election Day accounted for 5 percent of all ballots in Clark County, and nearly 3 percent in Washoe County. <\/p>\n<p>The records show Washoe County elections officials took in and counted 5,681 ballots via mail post-Election Day, while Clark County received and counted 39,915 ballots. Clark County recorded a total of 685,486 ballots, while Washoe County counted 195,272. <\/p>\n<p>An official from the Secretary of State\u2019s Elections Division sent The Federalist the same document, claiming that it was \u201can internal working document\u201d not \u201cintended for publication.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A July 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/webfiles.clarkcountynv.gov\/Voting%20by%20Mail%20Audit%20-%20Part%202.pdf?t=1690477925851&#038;t=1690477925851\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">audit<\/a> found Clark County elections officials processed more than 27,000 mail ballots the day after Election Day, and nearly 36,500 on that Thursday, Nov. 10. Things slowed down after that, with about 500 mail ballots processed on the Friday after Election Day and another 1,400 on the final day ballots were accepted. <\/p>\n<p>Clark County accepted 340,508 mail ballots, according to the audit, just less than half of the county\u2019s total ballot count.   <\/p>\n<p>The report, completed by the Clark County Audit Department, found nearly 5,000 mail ballots in the 2022 general election were received between Nov. 13 and Nov. 17, too late to be counted under the law. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause these ballots are not able to be counted\/processed under State Law, it highlights the need to continue educational and outreach efforts to increase voter awareness around submission deadlines,\u201d the report recommended. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Freewheeling Ballot Harvesting\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Nevada is among eight states that allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncsl.org\/elections-and-campaigns\/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to<\/a> the National Conference of State Legislatures. Ballot harvesting, once a felony in the Silver State, is the law of the land. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNevada has one of the most freewheeling ballot harvesting laws in the country, allowing unlimited volumes of collection by any \u2018person authorized by the voter,\u2019\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npri.org\/ballot-harvesting-opens-the-door-to-voting-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> Kevin Dietrich of Nevada Policy.<\/p>\n<p>Days before the election, the Las Vegas Review-Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/news\/politics-and-government\/nevada\/collecting-or-harvesting-ballot-practice-not-a-factor-in-2022-elections-2670272\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> its readers that there were \u201cvery few reports of organizations or people collecting ballots in this election.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Review-Journal reached out to both Washoe and Clark counties, which said that while there is not a way to track ballot collections, they have not heard of many people collecting ballots. The Review-Journal also reached out to tribal coalitions, political organizations, unions and churches but did not find anyone offering to bring people\u2019s ballots to the polls,\u201d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/news\/politics-and-government\/nevada\/collecting-or-harvesting-ballot-practice-not-a-factor-in-2022-elections-2670272\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piece<\/a> published on Nov. 4, 2022 claimed. <\/p>\n<p>Republicans who saw vote leads disappear in the days immediately following Election Day 2022 don\u2019t buy that narrative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely believe they did go out to do ballot harvesting,\u201d said Livziey, acknowledging that the practice is \u201cdefinitely legal\u201d in Nevada. <\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t mean it should be, according to the Republican National Committee, the Nevada Republican Party, and the campaign for former president Donald Trump, the GOP\u2019s 2024 candidate for president.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"c4rM2o6xf9PIFltijubKDz3QTBHyvJ1swkXWVmACRYSNhqGgpU5E8n\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last week, the Trump campaign challenged a Nevada law allowing elections officials to accept mail ballots for up to 4 business days after Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>I got curious, and records from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NVSOS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NVSOS<\/a> show that mail after Election Day was 5% of all ballots in Clark and 2.9% in Washoe. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u1ilZwRswn\">pic.twitter.com\/u1ilZwRswn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tabitha Mueller (@tabitha_mueller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tabitha_mueller\/status\/1788645971519471930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 9, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Higher Law\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>In a federal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/12024-05-03-Complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lawsuit<\/a> filed earlier this month against Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, and election officials in Nevada\u2019s two most populated counties, the Trump campaign and the GOP argue the four-day grace period violates federal laws that \u201cestablish the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the uniform, national Election Day.\u201d While states have broad discretion in deciding how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/without-the-save-act-the-only-thing-keeping-foreigners-from-voting-is-the-honor-system\/\" title=\"Foreigners can vote without the SAVE Act, relying solely on the honor system\">conduct federal elections<\/a>, their election laws \u201cmust comply with the higher law of the U.S. Constitution\u201d and the federal laws drawn from it, the plaintiffs charge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe result of Nevada\u2019s violation of federal law is that timely, valid ballots are diluted by untimely, invalid ballots, which violates the rights of candidates, campaigns, and voters under federal law,\u201d the lawsuit asserts. <\/p>\n<p>As the complaint notes, mail ballots for this year\u2019s Nov. 5 election postmarked by Election Day will be counted if received on or before 5 p.m. on Nov. 9, if Nevada\u2019s law remains in place. Additionally, the lawsuit charges that Nevada election officials \u201chave counted and will continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fetterman-campaign-sues-pennsylvania-election-officials-to-have-ballots-without-dates-and-incorrect-dates-counted\/\" title=\"Fetterman Campaign Sues Pennsylvania Election Officials To Have Ballots Without Dates And Incorrect Dates Counted\">count mail ballots<\/a> that lack a postmark and are received on or before 5 p.m. on November 8, 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor example, the United States Postal Service does not postmark bulk rate mail, which means that a significant number of mail ballots will lack a postmark. Nevada election officials will count such ballots even if they are <em>sent <\/em>after Election Day,\u201d the lawsuit states. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Playing the Hand<\/h2>\n<p>Democrats continue to dominate voting by mail. An MIT Election Lab <a href=\"https:\/\/electionlab.mit.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-05\/How-We-Voted-In-2022.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">poll<\/a> found 46 percent of respondents who identified as Democrats mailed in their ballots in the 2022 election compared to 27 percent of Republicans. <\/p>\n<p>Trump campaign attorneys and representatives did not return The Federalist\u2019s requests for comments. <\/p>\n<p>Livziey said Election Day should be the deadline for ballots, but if it\u2019s not, he believes Republicans need to better play the hand they\u2019ve been dealt. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether it should be illegal is another story. We need to do a better job playing by the rules we\u2019ve been handed,\u201d the county GOP official said. <\/p>\n<p>He added that he can\u2019t speak to Clark County Republicans ballot harvesting efforts in 2022, \u201cbut I can tell you in 2024 we absolutely will be.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4644f02b7d00f420d46fbd584f5a1641 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-4644f02b7d00f420d46fbd584f5a1641\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Nevada, a law permitting mail ballots arriving up to four days post-Election Day to count undergoes legal scrutiny. A review of the 2022 vote count unveils the significant impact of post-Election Day mail ballots in Clark County. Nearly 40,000 such ballots were counted, potentially influencing the election outcome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2244904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14-at-12.34.01-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2244903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14-at-12.34.01-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2244903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2244904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2244903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2244903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2244903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}