‘Nevadans deserve better’: Long Election Day lines in Clark County raise concerns

A new in-person voting process, voter enthusiasm, and a lengthy four-page ballot created a “perfect storm” of conditions that led to hourslong waits for many voters in Clark County and the delayed release of election results Tuesday night.

Nevada state law prohibits the release of any election results until after every voter in line at a polling place on Election Day has cast their ballot. Voting sites are considered “closed” at 7 p.m. but anyone in line at that time is permitted to cast their ballot.

Dozens of the more than 100 polling places across Clark County reported having voters waiting in line at 7 p.m., and the final ballot was not cast until shortly before midnight at Brinley Middle School in Las Vegas.

That means some voters waited upwards of 4 or 5 hours to cast their ballots. And it meant an eager public watched Election Day turn into election night and threaten to become the next day without any results being released.

Election officials and advocates in Nevada agreed that delaying results until the last voter votes is sound policy because every voter should feel like their vote matters and not be influenced by early results. But they agreed that long wait times are unacceptable and can be viewed as a form of voter suppression.

“Voters in Nevada deserve credit for their dedication during this General Election,” Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said in a statement. “They showed up despite the chaos the federal administration tried to incite in the months leading up to the election, and they overcame serious challenges on Election Day. That dedication is worthy of commendation, but no voter should have to wait in line for five hours.”

Aguilar’s statement continued: “Nevadans deserve better, and my team is ready to support Clark County officials and officials from any county willing to take ownership and confront these issues head on.”

In 2022, the final Nevada voter cast their ballot in Washoe County sometime around 9:18 p.m., according to media reports, and election results began to trickle in within the hour. In 2024, the final voter cast their ballot in Nye County around 9:23 p.m.

This year, 16 of Nevada’s 17 counties wrapped up voting by 9:30 p.m. Clark was the exception.

In a brief press conference Wednesday, Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo defended county operations, saying polling places had “sufficient” equipment and personnel based on prior-election analysis. She suggested Brinley MS might have been more popular this Election Day than in prior ones.

“The popularity of that site was determined by voters,” she said, “and now we have heard the voters. They do like that site, and we will be adjusting accordingly.”

Voters flocking to the same high-profile polling places, like the Galleria Mall or Desert Breeze Community Center, and overlooking sites with shorter wait times has been a reoccurring issue for the counties.

“Every election cycle teaches us so much,” said Portillo, “about not only how to improve the process but how to improve the voter experience. It is extremely important to us.”

In her comments she noted that other counties experienced long lines and that some large voting sites in Clark had no wait. She did not acknowledge that Clark wrapped up voting more than two hours later than Washoe, which was the second-to-last county in the state to close.

Battle Born Progress Executive Director Shelbie Swartz described the long lines on Election Day in Clark County as “a perfect storm of a very excited electorate, a new voting system, and a very long ballot.”

She continued, “The blame is not on one person. I know Cisco (Aguilar) and Lorena (Portillo) worked incredibly hard to make sure we had an efficient election.”

Kelly Durmick of All Voting Is Local said there needs to be more voter outreach about the state’s two-week early voting period, universal mail ballots, and the ability to find the best place to vote on Election Day. She noted that even after voters at sites with long lines were told by volunteers that other nearby polling places had significantly shorter lines they were reluctant to leave and opted to wait in line.

The process of voting in person also changed this year, with counties moving to a new system. Voters made their selection on a tablet screen and then a paper ballot showing their selections was printed out. Then, voters walked that physical ballot over to a tabulation machine to be counted.

Clark County used this new process in the primary earlier this year, but for many voters Tuesday was their first interaction with it.

Durmick said she noticed the process took longer when she attended a mock election held by Clark County earlier this year. Still, she said the new machines are good for the state, with many voters seeing the print ballot component as more transparent.

Another factor may have been the sheer length of Clark County’s ballot. It spanned four pages and included nearly 60 judicial races, although most were uncontested. Clark County officials noted that the ballot included “142 contests and 254 candidates.”

Election observers also believe a flurry of new voters utilizing same-day registration may have contributed to wait times. The University of Nevada Reno and the College of Southern Nevada were among the vote sites across the state that saw long wait times throughout Election Day.

Durmick is optimistic that election officials and state legislators will look at the issues and avoid a repeat of Tuesday two years from now.

“Besides the long line issue, which everyone takes very seriously, the (election) process went smoothly — during early voting and the vote by mail system.”

SOS Aguilar expressed a similar sentiment in his statement, saying a newly modernized election system adopted by the state provides “more insight into county processes and voter activity than we have ever had before.”

He added, “We’ve been pouring over the data since last night to better understand what happened and will readily share what we learn with counties to help them ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

Nevada is set to host the nation’s second presidential primary in 2028, and it will have a much bigger spotlight on its general election as a swing state.

The Nevada State Democratic Party, which has pushed hard for that spotlight, did not respond to the Current’s questions about whether the extreme wait times for voters, which delays the release of results, undermines those efforts.