Donald Trump Slams Clark County, Nevada's Election Process, County Responds

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social criticizing Clark County, Nevada as a corrupt electoral system. Trump wrote,

Clark County, Nevada, has a corrupt voting system (be careful Adam!), as do many places in our soon to be Third World Country. Arizona even said “by the end of the week!” – They want more time to cheat! Kari Lake MUST win!

Trump’s warning to “Adam” is directed at Trump-backed Republican candidate for Senate, Adam Laxalt. Laxalt is leading statewide, by two points according to the latest Secretary of State update.

Clark County issued a statement in defense of their process, outlining statutory deadlines. I covered the process in Clark County for RedState, here: Clark County, Nevada: What to Expect With Election Results.

#Election2022.

Our response to former President Donald Trump's recent comments about the elections process in Clark County, Nevada. pic.twitter.com/HVFfLrJclv

— Clark County Nevada (@ClarkCountyNV) November 10, 2022

On Thursday, around noon, Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria held the second Clark Elections Department press conference since the polls closed. He appeared in a suit and tie, with lapel pins a departure from his purple golf-style polo with embroidery and gold chain he wore Wednesday. Fancy.

Gloria began the press conference by saying:

“Because I really feel that it’s important we defend the integrity of our process here, not only in Clark County but in the entire state of Nevada, I’m gonna make a brief statement related to the comments put forward by former President Trump, about elections specifically here in Clark County. Obviously, he’s misinformed, two years later, about the law and our election processes, which ensure the integrity of elections in Clark County and the state. We couldn’t go any faster now even if we wanted to…”

Clark County Election Update https://t.co/I6Jj7YsLMW

— Clark County Nevada (@ClarkCountyNV) November 10, 2022

Gloria did strike some new themes, missing from the previous press conference, of protecting against illegal activity when he spoke about the 5,555 provisional ballots awaiting Secretary of State approval before being counted. He said it was to make sure they had not cast votes in more than one county. A member of the media asked why they did not have video streams of the process. Gloria responded by saying it was not required by law to have cameras, that they had decided not to, and spoke of the safety of staff and the public possibly misconstruing something they would see on video.

Other Criticisms

Trump has not been the only voice criticizing the elections process in Clark County. On Wednesday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton tweeted about the mail ballot deadline while forecasting results will be weeks away. He was in part right, it takes more than one week, but we do have statutory deadlines in place. We do know when the results will be certified: next Friday. Unofficial results should be available the day prior.

It’s not weeks away, Tom. Statutorily it will be certified next Friday.
I wrote this and live in Clark County. https://t.co/S6t3bMc3V5

— BrutalBrittany💕 (@BrutalBrittany2) November 10, 2022

Clark County voters, candidates, and national spectators do not enjoy our delayed results process. For the purpose of this cycle, nothing can or will be done to change the laws or deadlines. If you are feeling the pain of prolonged waiting, Clark County residents are feeling it more intensely. We can’t tweet our way outta this one, folks.

By the Numbers

As far as the numbers go, there was a mail ballot count of over 14,000 posted last night. That batch favored incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D) about two to one. That batch of mail ballots was from USPS pickup of ballots received Monday and on Election Day, Tuesday.

What is interesting to watch is that, compared to Maricopa County, Arizona, which seems to count its ballots chronologically, meaning the last to be counted are the Election Day turnout — known to favor Republicans — Clark County, Nevada does not count ballots in order of the date the vote was cast. Ballot type due to statutory deadlines is a better description of how Clark prioritizes their process.

So, there are still early voting ballots that have not been counted, specifically from drop boxes at polling locations. These were delivered to the Clark County Elections Department after the conclusion of the last day of early voting, which ended on Friday. Early vote turnout (in-person, on machines) favors the GOP. Drop boxes are counted as “mail votes” (think of this as just paper ballots). It’s hard to say if voters who did show up to the polls in early voting but opted for paper in lieu of machines are indeed majority Republican voters, but that’s what I did and my vote has not been counted but could be later today.

Grassroots leader Joey Gilbert, who ran in the primary for Governor and received 27.6 percent, or just over 48,000 votes, advised supporters to use paper ballots with blue-ink pens. Gilbert also advised same-day voting and dropping the ballot at the elections department. I took half of his advice and voted early, on paper, with a blue pen in a drop box.

Clark has about 50,000 “mail” ballots to be processed, this includes the early voting drop boxes. It seems we are reaching a finite number of remaining ballots as Gloria announced only 626 mail (USPS) ballots were received on Thursday. He anticipated that number to trend down in the coming days ahead of the November 14 deadline for mail ballots to be received, so long as they were postmarked by Election Day, November 8.

This means once the 50,000 “mail” ballots are processed, we still have over 7,000 on a list to be cured (signature issues) and 5,555 provisionals awaiting SOS report to be counted. Combined with the 14,000 counted on Wednesday, the number is 76,555.

This estimate is important because local commentators had used a 100,000 Clark County mail vote remainder to model for Democrat wins in statewide races. At the time I wrote:

“… 100K mail ballots left in Clark is not on my Bingo card. Yours?”

… 100K mail ballots left in Clark is not on my Bingo card.
Yours? https://t.co/bbCs33gxq2

— BrutalBrittany💕 (@BrutalBrittany2) November 9, 2022

So, while personalities clash over the process, it’s the numbers we should be watching. There are variables in play. Rural Nye County is still counting ballots and has a good turnout. Washoe County, which is purple, may end up with an important role in determining the razor-thin margins in the race for the US Senate. I can’t tell you what is going to happen in Nevada, just what is currently happening. The process is slow and most people agree on that much.