Why Clark County voters faced hourslong lines, delayed election results

The last voter on Tuesday to cast a ballot in Nevada, and quite possibly the entire country, waited nearly five hours past the polls’ closing time to reach a voting machine and make selections.

Experts are unsure what measures, beyond additional resources, could provide relief for long polling lines. Officials have given vague answers about what caused the delays, stating that they are continuing to analyze data from Tuesday to improve future elections, and that the long lines were likely caused by multiple factors.

Sondra Cosgrove, a College of Southern Nevada history professor, said a new voting process significantly contributed to the wait times.

The new process, first used in the primary election in June, involves printing out the voter’s marked ballot on a piece of paper. The voter then may inspect the paper ballot before inserting it into a separate tabulation machine. The process was meant to bolster confidence in elections, Cosgrove said.

Cosgrove told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she texted Lorena Portillo, the Clark County registrar of voters, after she saw that lines were out the door at CSN’s Charleston Boulevard campus. Portillo replied that the new process was taking a bit longer than expected, Cosgrove said.

“The printers are not quick,” the professor added.

Instead of increasing confidence, the new process could result in worries from people who saw long lines and experienced delayed results. But Cosgrove said she doesn’t believe the extra waiting affected the integrity of the election.

“People get weird conspiracy theories in their head when something’s off,” she said, adding that Nevada looked “kind of silly” when the state had released no results while the rest of the country was calling races.

Officials look to improve future election lines

County officials have said resources at polling locations were determined by turnout in past elections — but initial numbers show that in-person turnout on Election Day in Clark County was roughly the same as the last midterm general election in 2022.

It remains unclear what exactly caused delays at Brinley Middle School, a new polling site in 2026 where the last voter waited nearly five hours. County data shows that 725 people voted at the middle school on Tuesday. During the last midterm general election in 2022, there were 785 in-person voters at the closest polling location, an elementary school less than a mile away. That school was not used this year.

“Additionally, the Elections Department is unable to add machines to a location if additional power sources are unavailable — this is a challenge with locations across the region,” Clark County spokeswoman Jennifer Cooper said in a statement.

On election night, Portillo told reporters that officials did not see an abnormally high number of first-time voters registering on Tuesday. Those voters cast provisional ballots, which can take longer for officials to verify.

Uncontested races clog up ballots

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said on Wednesday that no one should have to wait in line up to five hours to vote.

“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,” Aguilar said in an emailed statement.

His spokesperson said Aguilar was not available for an interview and directed additional questions to county officials.

Clark County placed some of the blame on a two-page, double-sided ballot filled with numerous judicial races, many of which were uncontested.

“The County continues to welcome the Secretary’s perspective on reducing the length of a ballot when uncontested races are included,” Cooper said in her statement.

Harvard “Larry” Lomax, who previously served as the Clark County registrar of voters, questioned why lawmakers haven’t removed uncontested races from ballots.

“Let’s get them off the ballot,” he said. “They’ve won. If they get one vote, they win.”

Criminal defense attorney and podcaster Dayvid Figler, who previously served as a Las Vegas Municipal Court Judge, said this year seemed to have one of the longest ballots in Clark County when it comes to judicial races.

District judges serve six-year terms, so unless a judge is appointed and runs for the seat in a subsequent election, the majority of races will be voted on every six years. And voting in nonpartisan races is more complicated and time consuming than simply following party lines, said Figler, who supports a system of appointing judges rather than electing them.

“Some people might be thinking about it for the very first time and getting frustrated,” Figler said about voters who cast a ballot on Election Day.

Election observers report long lines, minimal tech issues

Robert Brescia, a bartender who lives in downtown Las Vegas, said he has voted on Election Day at KO Knudson Middle School for more than 10 years. He recalled seeing up to 20 voting machines in the past, but this year there were only eight. Two of them were reserved for people casting a provisional ballot.

“We go this time, and there’s a line out the door to the street,” Brescia told the Review-Journal. “It’s never that way, never.”

Brescia, a Democrat, said the actual voting process was relatively quick, although printing out the ballot took a few extra moments. But he saw at least three people leave the line while he waited over an hour to reach a machine.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada had more than 400 people over 10 counties observing elections during early voting and on Election Day. Athar Haseebullah, the organization’s executive director, said observers noted that the voting process was taking several minutes longer per person.

“When you add a couple minutes here and a couple minutes there, it starts to add up overall,” he said.

Haseebullah said observers also saw long lines on the last day of early voting, when some people waited nearly three hours to finish casting a ballot.

There were reports of minor technological issues throughout the day that were resolved quickly, as well as many young, first-time voters at UNLV, he said.

The Nevada Election Observation Network sent about 68 observers to 58 polling locations across Nevada on Election Day. Lexi Boiro, a data analyst with the nonprofit, said the organization received a few reports of minor technological issues.

Some observers reported people exiting long lines to go home and fill out their mail-in ballot for drop-off.

“I think what we saw on Tuesday was a voting process that should be trusted,” Boiro said.

Haseebullah questioned whether there is a quick solution to long lines beyond the government adding more poll workers or voting machines. Legislators could allow initial results to be released before everyone in line has voted, but that runs the risk of influencing people to leave the line when they see those results, he said.

Lomax, the former county registrar, earned a reputation for smooth elections when he served in the role from 1999 to 2013. Back then voters were assigned to a specific precinct instead of being able to go to any voting center.

Even when there were set precincts, Lomax said, it was hard to estimate the best way to distribute voting machines and resources. He said Portillo, who worked under Lomax, “seems to be doing just fine” in her role.

Haseebullah said that informing voters about their options to use early voting or mail-in ballots also would reduce future wait times.

UNLV history professor Michael Green said recent elections have seen more people showing up just before polls close at 7 p.m., despite the variety of voting options.

“I’m happy that so many wanted to vote, and I noticed that there’s often a call for people to make a plan to vote,” Green said. “And I think a lot of people don’t do that.”

Last to start reporting results

The impact of long lines is most clearly seen in the delays for results on election night.

Nevada’s first round of election results was the last to be posted by national media outlets. The Associated Press had initial numbers from Alaska and Hawaii, which are in earlier time zones, before the Nevada secretary of state’s office released its first round of numbers.

State law dictates that Nevada cannot begin releasing results until every person waiting in line when polls closed has cast a ballot. Across the country, people have a right to remain in line to vote once polling places close. But some states, like California, call for counties to begin reporting election results within a set time after polls close, regardless of the people in line.

Nevada’s law, combined with its western time zone, means that year after year, it’s one of the last states to report national numbers on election night. The last person to vote in Nevada on Tuesday may have been the last person to do so in the entire country, as the Review-Journal was unable to find examples of other polling locations on the West Coast with people waiting past 11:30 p.m.

Haseebullah said he would rather have a voting process that increases confidence in the system but leads to long waits than have to debate election integrity in the aftermath.

“I understand the desire to have results quicker,” he said. “I get that’s annoying for people, but it is what it is.”

Daniele Monroe-Moreno, chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, said Wednesday that she was not concerned with the long lines because everyone was able to vote.

“You have a right to make sure you’re able to cast your ballot,” she said. “I am excited that our lines were so long, and especially on some of our college campuses, we had so many first-time voters that were coming out to vote.”

Jill Douglass, head of the Clark County Republican Party, said she would like to see more resources committed to Election Day, such as additional machines or more polling places. She questioned whether early voting should be shortened to dedicate more resources to Election Day logistics, or whether lawmakers could remove uncontested races from the ballot.

Douglass said it’s embarrassing for Nevada when long waits end in a delayed release of results.

“And quite frankly, if you’re standing in line and you’re already getting results from the East Coast, that can very well have people say ‘Why bother?’ and turn around and not vote,” she said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at [email protected] or 702-383-0240. Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected] or at 702-383-0336.