Want to vote by mail? Nevada officials say to do it a week early to avoid snafus

Nevada election officials are recommending that people mailing their ballots in the June primary do so at least one week before Election Day to ensure they are received and counted, amid policy changes and budget issues at the U.S. Postal Service.

At an interim legislative meeting last week, state election officials told lawmakers that they were recommending people use ballot drop boxes if they plan to use their mail ballot to vote. However, they added that if people want to put their ballot in the mail, they should send it early to ensure it gets counted.

Mail ballots will be sent to all registered voters in mid-May for the June 9 primary, unless a voter has proactively opted out (which about 6,500 people chose to do). Nearly 45 percent of voters in Nevada's 2024 general election voted using a mail ballot; in the 2024 primary, nearly 60 percent of votes were cast through a mail ballot.

Although Nevada ballots postmarked as late as Election Day are accepted and counted if they arrive within four days of polls closing, the advice to act well in advance of that comes amid policy changes at the U.S. Postal Service, whose leaders said last month that it will run out of money in the next year without congressional action. 

Last year, the Postal Service began a new policy where post offices located at least 50 miles from a processing center will not have mail picked up at the end of the day. Instead, it will be picked up the next day when mail is delivered, a change the Postal Service's parent agency said would disproportionately affect rural communities. 

The only postal service processing centers are in Reno and Las Vegas, meaning the policy is expected to affect rural Nevadans the most.

The policy is part of the agency's 10-year "Delivering for America" plan that launched in early 2021 to achieve financial sustainability.

Election officials are also concerned about new postmarking guidance from the Postal Service. In December, the agency released new rules clarifying that a ballot is postmarked when it arrives at a processing facility, not immediately when something is put in any given mailbox. If a person delivers their ballot to the post office and receives a stamped postmark, the day listed will be the day of submission, the secretary of state's office said.

Sherry Patterson, a Postal Service spokesperson, said voters should mail ballots a week in advance, but said that this recommendation is "a common-sense measure" and "is not tied to our financial condition or service performance metrics." 

In 2024, the Postal Service said it delivered 99.88 percent of ballots to election officials within one week and 97.73 percent of ballots within three days.

According to a California study of ballot arrivals during a special election last year, 0.9 percent of ballots from counties outside the 50-mile radius were received too late to be counted, quadruple the rate from before the policy took effect. In counties within the 50-mile radius, the rate of late ballots doubled.

"Given some of the questions about timing to get that ballot from the voter to their county election official, it's a bit alarming," Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Wlaschin told lawmakers last week. 

Since it was adopted during the COVID pandemic, the policy of sending a mail ballot to every registered voter in Nevada unless they opt out has been politically contentious. Democrats say these universal mail ballot laws help ensure that any eligible person can vote, while Republicans have largely argued they invite confusion and increase the potential for irregularities, instead pushing for an opt-in system for mail ballots. There is no evidence that widespread voter fraud exists in Nevada.

Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) has pushed for a variety of election law changes, including ending post-Election Day ballot acceptance and reversing universal sending of mail ballots, but they have stalled in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

Lombardo also vetoed a bill last year that would have increased the number of ballot drop boxes in the days leading up to Election Day, saying it did not guarantee enough security of the ballots. 

All Voting is Local, a group focusing on voting rights, has long encouraged voters to submit their mail ballots a week in advance, Nevada State Director Kerry Durmick said. This is to ensure that voters who need to fix their signatures have as much time as possible to do so.

However, she said outreach by state officials to send mail ballots earlier is likely also tied to President Donald Trump's attempts to interfere in state-run elections. 

He has called to "nationalize" elections — despite the U.S. Constitution saying states are the ones overseeing the "Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections" — and recently signed an executive order instructing the federal government to create lists of people eligible to vote. It is facing a lawsuit from states, including Nevada.

"Our state and our local election officials really do care about each and every single voter and they want to ensure that your vote is cast and counted," she said. "We're just giving this guidance given the situation with the federal overreach into our elections."

Durmick said she has not heard any evidence to suggest the Postal Service would intentionally hold up mail delivery of ballots.

Nevada law allows any ballot postmarked by Election Day to be counted up to four days after polls close. Ballots with an unclear or no postmark can be counted if they are received up to three days after Election Day.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the legality of a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be accepted after Election Day. If justices strike down the law, it could upend Nevada's processes.

In Nevada's 2024 general election, about 11,900 votes were received and counted after Election Day in Clark and Washoe counties, making up about 2 percent of all mail ballots cast.

The ruling is expected to come in late June, meaning Nevada's early June primaries would be unaffected, but Durmick said it could change the advice for the November general election. 

"The guidance will have to shift based off that decision," Durmick said.