In Nevada, Democrats Win Elections After Election Day

The recent phenomenon of Democrats wining statewide races after “Election Day” is a bug, not a feature. In this respect, we disagree with an article written by reporter Steve Sibelius entitled, “Delayed election results? This is a feature, not a bug of a pandemic-era bill.” Sebelius then delves into why election results are delayed and how pandemic-era rules ensure counting continues for a week.

For background, the Democratic majority in the Nevada legislature ushered in sweeping changes to state election laws during the pandemic. Legislation passed in 2021 legalized unlimited ballot harvesting, ballots by mail to all actively-registered voters, and extended deadlines for mail-in ballots. The extended deadlines for ballots without postmarks was upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court, and inferred language into the legislation.

Despite, the narrative that every vote must be counted in order to “save democracy,” every vote hasn’t been counted as Senator Jacky Rosen and the state democrats down-ballot celebrate their late and narrowly won victories. The amount of ballots that need to be cured throughout the Silver State exceeds 10,000 ballots and must be cured by 5 PM tomorrow, November 12.

I’m honored and humbled by the trust Nevada has put in me to continue serving as your U.S. Senator, and grateful to the grassroots team that fought for this victory.

We still have challenges ahead of us, but I know we can keep making progress for the American people together. pic.twitter.com/z2ZoxW7kCu

— Jacky Rosen (@RosenforNevada) November 9, 2024

By election day on November 5, Rosen’s challenger Captain Sam Brown maintained a comfortable lead and down-ballot GOP challengers had leads from one to four percent, yet as ballots continued to be counted after November 5, the GOP lost any and all narrow gains that would have secured a larger majority in the U.S. Senate and larger minority in the state Assembly. Election Day mail ballot drop offs in Clark County, delivered by the UPS after Election Day and included drop boxes, totaled an approximate 55,000 ballot drop and was +34 Rosen. Down-ballot democratic candidates gained an approximate 2 percent lead on the drop, according to a GOP data analyst.

According to the latest numbers as provided by the Secretary of State, three Assembly Democrats will be reelected by a less than one percent margins:

Assemblyman Max Carter (AD-12) leads Nancy Roecker by 295 votes, Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (AD-41) leads Rafael Arroyo by 358 votes, and in Assembly District 21 Elaine Marzola leads April Arndt by 528 votes.

Statewide, approximately 70,000 to 80,000 ballots were counted after election day and Democrats secured over 70 percent of the votes cast. The numbers are approximate because there hasn’t been data published by Clark County or the Secretary of State that reveals how many ballots, per day, were counted after Election Day. When those numbers are available, we will publish the data.

Although the GOP narrowly staved off a Democratic supermajority in the state Senate and Assembly, when the majority fundamentally transformed Nevada’s election laws in 2021, they also gerrymandered the state into a Democratic supermajority.

GOP lawmakers in Nevada indicate they will reintroduce legislation to ensure that all ballots are tabulated by the close of Election Day. Will there be bipartisan support?

Both Secretary of State Franciso Aguilar (D) and Governor Joe Lombardo (R) have publicly expressed frustration with the ballot-counting delays, but as long as the Democrats maintain their majority in the legislature, the likelihood of passing new legislation may meet a similar fate of the last legislative session. During that session, Lombardo and GOP legislators introduced a series of election integrity bills, yet the Democratic majority did not grant any piece of legislation a single hearing, with majority leader Steve Yeager (AD-9), who was also losing his race on Election Day, warned any GOP election integrity bill would be “dead on arrival.”