PHOTOS: Nevadans head to the post office, gather at the polls for mostly mail primary election
State officials say nearly 400,000 Nevadans have cast a ballot in Nevada’s unusual, mostly mail primary election as of their latest count Wednesday morning — a figure that amounts to 24 percent turnout of the state’s active voters and exceeds turnout levels in recent primaries.
The vast majority of Nevadans opted to vote by mail, as recommended by state officials who hoped to curb the spread of coronavirus at polling places — nearly 391,000 mail ballots received statewide as of 2:27 a.m. on Wednesday, with more expected to roll in in coming days. Fewer than 5,000 voted in-person, or about 1 percent.
But the limited in-person voting locations still attracted long lines of people, some because their ballot was lost or damaged and others who were simply wary of the shift to vote-by-mail. While the polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the last voter did not get through one of the three in-person Clark County voting sites until after 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
The turnout so far has surpassed the 23 percent turnout rate in the 2018 primary and the 19 percent turnout in the 2016 primary.
Nevada Independent photographers captured the Election Day atmosphere at polling places in Las Vegas and Reno, as well as the extensive ballot-counting operation happening behind the scenes.