What to know about Nevada accepting mail ballots after Election Day

In the heat of election season, you're likely to hear false claims that Nevada's elections are "rigged," in large part because the state accepts mail ballots after Election Day.

Two days after Election Day in 2022, Donald Trump claimed that final results were unknown because the state wanted "more time to cheat." Jim Marchant, the Republican nominee for secretary of state in 2022 and again this year, said he lost because of "cheating," citing the fact that he was ahead at one point during ballot counting.

Below, The Indy separates fact from fiction in the ballot counting discourse.

What are Nevada's rules on accepting ballots after Election Day?

Nevada law allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted as long as they are received by 5 p.m. on the Saturday following Election Day. Ballots with an unclear or missing postmark will count if received before 5 p.m. on the Friday after Election Day.

These rules followed the passage of a wide-ranging 2021 law — staunchly opposed by Republicans — that made permanent the pandemic-induced expansion of mail voting. In the 2020 election, ballots postmarked by Election Day could count if received within a week, but the 2021 bill shortened it to four days.

During the 2024 election cycle, Republicans lost state and federal lawsuits that sought to end post-Election Day ballot counting. In a case about a similar law in Mississippi, the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled earlier this year that counting ballots after Election Day was legal.

How many ballots come in after Election Day?

The number of ballots arriving after Election Day is a small percentage of overall votes, though they can still swing close races.

In the 2024 general election, about 9,500 Clark County ballots and 2,400 Washoe County ballots were received post-Election Day, less than 1 percent of all ballots cast in the two counties.

In the 2022 general election, about 40,000 Clark County ballots and 5,700 Washoe County votes were received after Election Day. This made up 5.8 percent of all ballots received in Clark County and 2.9 percent in Washoe County.

Are these laws to blame for Nevada's slow counting?

The acceptance of ballots post-Election Day means it will take longer for the public to have a full picture of Nevada's results.

However, just because election results come in after Election Day, it doesn't mean the ballot was returned after Election Day. For example, in the 2024 general election, the results of 54,000 Clark County ballots dropped off on Election Day were not released until the next day, which frustrated Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D). These made up more than five times as many ballots actually received after Election Day.

During the 2025 legislative session, Aguilar proposed a bill to provide local election offices with more resources and supported a proposal to beef up ballot drop box capacity before Election Day. Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) vetoed both proposals, saying that the first bill "centralizes too much authority" in the secretary of state's office, while the latter did not include sufficient security measures for the drop boxes.

Another reason why Nevada's first results tend to come in late on election night is a law that prohibits election officials from releasing results until the final person in line at an Election Day polling site has voted. 

During the 2024 general election, the first results were posted at around 10 p.m.

Are there any signs of these rules changing?

There are no indications that Democrats, who control the state Legislature, are interested in changing these laws.

In the 2023 legislative session, Lombardo (R) proposed a bill that would have required all mail ballots to be received by the close of polls on Election Day, but it never received a hearing. During the 2025 session, Sen. Lisa Krasner (R-Reno) sponsored a bill to require all ballots mailed to an election clerk to be postmarked by the end of early voting and received before polls close on Election Day. It also never received a hearing.

Ahead of the 2025 session, Lombardo also said he would consider a ballot initiative on the topic if the Legislature did not change the acceptance rules, but that never materialized.