Primary results delayed
Clark County voters forced to languish for hours in long lines
Extremely long lines of voters waiting at in-person voting sites in Clark County on Tuesday significantly delayed the release of preliminary primary election results, marring the end of Nevada’s first mail-in election.
According to Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin, no results would be released until the last voter cast a ballot. Voters who were in line by 7 p.m. were allowed to vote.
Nevada shifted to an all-mail primary for the first time in state history in light of the coronavirus pandemic. To reduce potential COVID-19 exposure, only one in-person voting site was allowed in each county.
However, after a lawsuit filed by state and national Democrats, Clark County alone agreed to add two additional in-person sites. Those were the locations that were jammed with election day voters Tuesday.
Joe Gloria, Clark Coun
ty’s registrar of voters, acknowledged the long lines during the day and said officials never stopped processing voters.
“I think the day has gone fairly well,” he said.
Gloria said deciding in late
March to switch the election from regular procedures to all-mail created “a tremendous challenge” for his staff.
The three vote centers were located at Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas, the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas and Paradise Recreation Center in Las Vegas.
People who did not receive a ballot or made a mistake on a ballot needed to visit an in-person vote center for a new one. In-person voting was also available for people who needed to register on the same day or change their registration.
In addition to voting centers, a series of ballot drop-off locations were available to voters.
Democratic complaints
Issues with lines at voting centers prompted the state Democratic Party to release a statement Tuesday night. The statement from party chair William Mccurdy II read:
“As predicted, despite the Secretary of State moving Nevada’s primary to an all-mail election, many Nevada voters still participated in person. Hours-long wait times to cast a vote is exactly why NV Dems and our partner groups sued the state to improve voting by mail, allow for voter assistance, and expand the number of in-person polling locations.
“Had the Secretary of State gotten her way and Clark County voters were limited to just a single polling location, these wait times would have been even longer than the ones we’re seeing now. It is imperative the state offer an adequate amount of hygienic, well-organized polling locations and we will continue fighting for these improvements to prevent a repeat in November should we find ourselves under the same circumstances.”
Even after 9 p.m., a line stretched outside Desert Breeze Community Center.
Booker Reid got in line at the community center just before polls closed at 7 p.m. He said the wait was a small price to pay to exercise his right to vote.
“A wait is not a problem for me,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Osvert Lara said it took him about 4½ hours to get through the line at the community center. He called the process disorganized.
“And if this is what we’re looking forward to in November, we can expect a lot bigger mess,” he said.
At Paradise Recreation Center, Ellen Russell, Shannon Deboer and Jonel Parker had been in line for hours when they spoke to a reporter Tuesday afternoon. Despite being about a dozen people away from the front of the line, they said they’d been stuck in the same spot for an hour.
“They need more locations and a better system,” Parker said. “It shouldn’t be this hard to vote.”
Gloria said officials are discussing ways to approach the November election.
“One thing that’s for certain is we will have in-person voting for the early voting period and on Election Day,” he said.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@ reviewjournal.com or 702-3875298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Review-journal staff writers Alexis Egeland and Rory Appleton contributed to this report. Reporting intern Amanda Bradford contributed to this report.