Nevada Secretary of State Says 90 Percent of Remaining Uncounted Ballots Are in Clark County, a Democratic Stronghold
A bulk of the remaining uncounted ballots in Nevada—where Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over President Donald Trump—is in the state's Democratic stronghold, according to Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske.
In a statement Thursday, Cegavske said there were approximately 190,150 ballots statewide left to be counted. Ninety percent of them are from Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas. Democrats make up roughly 40 percent of registered active voters in the county, while Republicans account for 28 percent.
The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner in Nevada, as the race remains too close to call. New data released Thursday showed Biden ahead of Trump by more than 11,000 votes. The AP has Biden with 264 electoral votes, which means Nevada's six votes would give him the 270 he needs to win the White House, if the other projections hold up.
Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a call with reporters on Thursday she is confident the former vice president will carry Nevada but warned the margin could tighten.
Nevada will accept mail-in ballots postmarked by November 3 until next Tuesday. The final date when votes can be counted is November 12.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria said in a press conference on Thursday that it could take until Saturday or Sunday before mail-in ballots that had been returned are tallied. He said the county expects to release the results of about 51,000 mail-in ballots on Friday morning.
"Our goal here in Clark County is not to count fast," he said. "We want to make sure that we're being accurate. The results in the state of Nevada obviously are going to be very important to the entire country, and that is our number one goal."
Gloria also pushed back against the Trump campaign's allegations of voter fraud in the state. The president's team filed a lawsuit claiming that roughly 10,000 people who cast ballots no longer live in Nevada. Former attorney general and Trump campaign co-chair Adam Laxalt also said Thursday that the campaign believed that there were "many" mail ballots submitted by deceased individuals.
"We are not aware of improper ballots that are being processed," Gloria said.
Later Thursday, the Nevada Republican Party announced it had sent a criminal referral to Attorney General William Barr over alleged voter fraud.
"Our lawyers just sent a criminal referral to AG Barr regarding at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud. We expect that number to grow substantially. Thousands of individuals have been identified who appear to have violated the law by casting ballots after they moved from NV," the Nevada party tweeted.
