Governor Lombardo Calls For Serious Reforms Upon Election Certification, ‘Nevadans Deserve Timely Election Results’

Today, three weeks after “Election Day,” the Nevada Supreme Court certified the 2024 General Election results, making the statewide results official. Through pandemic-era legislation passed unilaterally by the Democratic majority, ballots can be received and counted for three to four days after Election Day. The deadline for curing ballots was November 12 and the certification by county commissioners was held on November 15.

According to the Secretary of State, 90 percent of the total results were released on Election Night. The final number of voters who cast a ballot was 1,487,887, (72.84 percent of registered voters) a record number of ballots cast in Nevada this year.

In a press release this afternoon, Governor Joe Lombardo (R) reiterated his frustration in the delayed receipt and tabulation of ballots, stating:

“I’m grateful for the work of the Nevada Secretary of State and Supreme Court in administering the certification process; however, it is evident our election system needs serious reforms. The time it takes to count ballots and finalize our elections in Nevada is simply unacceptable. Nevadans deserve timely election results. This is not a complex issue – all ballots should be received by Election Day.  This must be immediately addressed in the upcoming legislative session.”

On November 6th, Governor Lombardo highlighted his legislation in the last legislative session which was DOA to Democrat leadership.

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— Joe Lombardo (@JoeLombardoNV) November 7, 2024

Governor Lombardo’s election integrity legislation included: photo identification to vote; the last four digits of a social security or driver’s license number on the mailed ballot verified by the county clerk; mail ballots by request, thereby eliminating the voter’s existing requirement to opt-out; mailed ballots must be received at the close of business on Election Day, instead of four days after election day; and, eliminates unlimited ballot harvesting by an unauthorized ballot harvester. The Governor’s proposal limits ballot collection to 30 ballots and the harvester must submit an affidavit and report to the Secretary of State’s office.

Bipartisanship reforms will be spearheaded by the Governor and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D), who has publicly stated that his office is already “preparing for the 2025 legislative session to partner with the Governor and lawmakers to improve Nevada’s election-related statutes in time for the 2026 election cycle.”

In an interview with Channel 4 on November 7, Aguilar said the delayed counting of mail ballots was “extremely frustrating” and suggested that the legislature should pass new deadlines for counties to process the ballots they have on hand. “It’s extremely frustrating. And I’m just as frustrated as every Nevada voter out there. We worked significantly hard to put results out on election night. You know, we thought the capacity was there to be able to process these ballots,” he said. “We will be having a conversation about this. Nevadans deserve better.”