Election Day is Tuesday. Most active voters in Nevada have already voted, either in-person or by mail-in ballot. In Washoe County, 71 percent have already cast their ballots. Washoe County typically has about 95 polling locations but it only has 29 for this one because of the pandemic. There are also 16 ballot drop-off locations. Since less than 30 percent still haven't voted, it could mean shorter lines than usual.
"I don't expect that we're going to see extremely long lines," Deanna Spikula, Washoe County Registrar of Voters said. "We'll see some lines, of course. We always do on Election Day but I think that it'll be processed quickly."
Washoe County is in the process of counting more than 100,000 ballots. Those should be processed by the time polls close. More people chose to vote by paper ballot than in-person during the two weeks of early voting.
"I'm a little surprised that mail-in voting has been more popular than early voting," Spikula said. "It's a pleasant surprise. We just want people to vote no matter how they choose to vote."
Polls open at 7:00 A.M. and close at 7:00 P.M. Poll workers will arrive in advance to get the machines ready to go. People can line up early and anyone in line before the closing time will still be able to vote. You can also skip the line if you choose to drop off your absentee ballot.
"You can drop off your ballot at an in-person location," Spikula said. "However, it might be more convenient to just drop your ballot off if you're wanting to drop that mail-in ballot off at one of the drop-off locations."
Nevada has same-day registrations. If you are not registered to vote but you want to cast a ballot, you can do that at any polling place.
"You just need to make sure you have your Nevada driver's license or ID card with you," Spikula said. "That is a requirement for same-day registration."
An ID also includes an interim document that people have while they are waiting for their driver's license to arrive. People also have to show a proof of residency if the address does not match the ID. A utility bill or something similar will work for that.
Unofficial results will be available after the polls close.
"We will be posting results and they will be unofficial results that we'll start posting after the last voter has cast their ballot in the state of Nevada," Spikula said.
Mail-in ballots are still expected to arrive up to seven days after Election Day. Those will count as long as they are postmarked by November 3. The registrar's office will also count provisional ballots. Washoe County's results will not be official until the canvass of the vote, November 16.
"The people who have same-day registered, they were issued a provisional ballot," Spikula said. "Once we verify their eligibility to cast a ballot, then those will be counted."
Voters do not have a designated polling place. They can go to any location within the county to cast their ballots. Spikula says you should have a plan in place, including what time of day to go. The county's "Wait Times" app will also be operating again to let voters know where the shorter lines are.
"If you're planning on going to one location that's smaller and there's a larger location that's close by and it only has a five-minute wait, it might be worth a drive a couple miles to go to that other location that has that lower wait," Spikula said.
During early voting, larger locations like the Reno-Sparks Convention Center had almost no wait at all. They also had a high number of voting machines.
Washoe County will also live stream the ballot-counting process on its YouTube channel throughout the day.
So far, the county is seeing very little issues with ballots, including voter fraud. Spikula says her office has had about 15 incidents where someone mistakenly tried to vote twice. Some of those include people who vote by mail but did not know if their ballot made it, so they tried to vote in-person. Spikula is turning those over to the Secretary of State's office and the Washoe County District Attorney's Office.
For more information, head to Washoe County's General Election Information Center at https://www.washoecounty.us/voters/
