If voters prefer to personally deliver their mail-in ballots on Election Day, they will be able to do so at all 125 voting sites in Clark County.

“All voters are getting a mail ballot and we want to encourage them to use that and if they’re not comfortable putting that in the mail — which we don’t have any indications that say that they should be concerned putting it in the mail — but having 125 sites, plus 35 early voting sites will give them a lot of access to drop the ballot,” Clark County’s registrar of voters, Joe Gloria, told the Clark County Commission on Tuesday.

During a special legislative session in July, state lawmakers passed along party lines Assembly Bill 4, which expanded mail-in voting during emergencies such as the pandemic. By law, the ballots must be mailed to in-state residents at least 20 days before the election.

Gloria said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if mail ballots get sent locally during the first week of October, but he didn’t make any guarantees because it depends how the printing process plays out. The registrar predicted that 40 percent to 50 percent of voters will participate in the upcoming election via the mail ballots. Less than 5 percent of Clark County voters participated via mail during the general elections in 2016 and 2018.

Gloria also said he’s “very confident” the county will have enough poll workers to staff both the early voting and Election Day voting sites. Election officials have estimated they will need roughly 3,100 poll workers for the effort. 

As of Tuesday morning, the county had secured 2,459 poll workers, Gloria said. Staff are working through another 1,257 applications.

Last month, Clark County increased the pay for poll workers as an incentive to overcome hurdles finding enough people amid the pandemic. Gloria said the pay bump and heightened public awareness appear to have succeeded.

“We have seen a steady stream of people coming in and my staff is going through those applications as quickly as we can,” he said.

Commissioner Tick Segerblom raised the possibility of increasing poll worker pay even more to help ensure enough people stick around through Election Day. The commission didn’t take any action Tuesday, but county staff are going to look into it.