LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Huge decisions will be made this election cycle for Clark County voters.
While some people put a lot of thought into who and what issues to vote for, some may not put as much thought into a mail-in ballot, once it’s sent off.
Clark County election officials showed FOX5 what happens to a mail-in ballot once it makes it to election headquarters. The county wants to make sure people sign their mail-in ballot’s return envelope.
“Very important. They must provide that. That’s what the state of Nevada requires us to look at and review and verify in order to count the ballot,” said Clark County Registrar of Voters Lorena Portillo.
Portillo says in the 2022 general election more than 14,000 people either didn’t sign their ballot envelopes before sending them in, or the signatures couldn’t be verified with signatures on file.
The county attempted to contact those people, but say they were not able to contact around 7,000 people. Those ballots were rejected, and the votes did not count.
Election officials showed the journey of a mail-in ballot once it gets to election headquarters.
It first goes to an intake area where the ballot envelope is scanned, and the signature is captured. The scanned signatures are then reviewed by the Automatic Signature Recognition program.
The county says envelopes with signatures that are not verified, go through a manual verification where bipartisan teams compare envelope signatures on file from the DMV or election registration forms.
From there, the county says ballot envelopes are sorted to separate those with a verified signature and those without.
Also, during the process, a machine then opens the ballot envelope.
A bipartisan team of two, which cannot be of the same party, removes the ballot from the envelope to make sure it’s in good condition so it can be fed through a machine to be tabulated.
If the ballot is ripped, or you spill something on it, it then goes to the “ballot duplication” room where a copy is made.
After some other steps, ballots eventually make their way to the tabulation area to be counted.
People can check their registration information, to make sure it includes contact phone numbers, an address or email in case the county needs to speak with them about a ballot. There is also a lot more information voters can check at clarkcountynv.gov/elections. People may also call the Clark County Election Department with questions at 702-455-vote (8683).
Early voting begins Saturday, October 19 and runs until Friday, November 1. Election day is Tuesday, November 5.
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