LAS VEGAS – Former Vice President Joe Biden is maintaining a slight lead in Nevada with just 12,000 more votes than President Donald Trump. However, more than 50,000 mail-in ballots remain to be counted in Clark County alone.
Election officials in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, hope to have most of the mail-in ballots counted and tabulated by Sunday. He said he hopes to get out the updated average every morning.
According to the state’s website, former President Joe Biden currently has 604,251 votes, or 49.43% of the total.
President Trump has 592,813 votes, or 48.50% of the total.
That’s a difference of 11,438.
These are not the end results.
In Clark County, the registrar of voters, J. G. Gloria, said as of Thursday morning, they had more than 50,000 mail-in ballots for Thursday’s count. There are also about 60,000 provisional ballots whose counties need to be verified and counted. All personal votes are tabulated and already reported.
“It’s a number I can’t tell you (how many ballots are left to count). I don’t know how many ballots will come by mail.” Gloria said. “Mail can’t count the ballots until they all deliver,” and they could be delivered by Tuesday.
In Nevada, all mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are valid and can be counted up to one week after Election Day.
Meanwhile, just moments before the total announcement of the updated vote, Trump announced in his campaign that he would file a lawsuit in Nevada, accusing a variety of potential voters of fraud. The campaign is the fourth lawsuit filed in the last 24 hours; Trump filed the campaign in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Lakshalt said observers could not observe the signature comparison and ballot count.
The Trump campaign says there is also evidence that non-residents voted, and those votes are being counted. In Nevada, voters are required to stay in the state for at least 30 days before voting.
The Trump campaign’s legal proceedings include a first-hand account of a woman named Jill Stoke, who says she went to her polling station on Tuesday and was told she had already cast her vote. She says she always votes in person, and asks election officials about it. She claims someone stole her mail-in ballot, and her roommate.
Stokke has trouble seeing, and told local media he would not be able to read the printout on the ballot without help.
When asked about the incident, Clark County Voters Registrar JJ Gloria said he was aware of Stoke’s claim, and was confident how it was handled.
“I worked with him personally. She brought her claim to me. We reviewed her opinion, and in our opinion, her signature. We also gave her the opportunity to make a statement, if she wants to object and challenge it. She refused to do so. She was also interviewed by a member of the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office Fee Investigation Team, and they didn’t mind the help we tried to provide, “Gloria said.
“Because of all the irregularities,” Lakshalt said he was asking the state to “stop counting invalid votes.”
In response, a Clark County official said at a subsequent press conference that his goal is not to be quick, but to be accurate.
“We are not aware of any invalid ballots being processed,” Gloria said. He also said that they have done everything possible to accommodate the observers and make their process transparent.
There are similar arguments filed in Trump campaign lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania about not allowing observers to observe ballot counts. A judge in Georgia on Thursday morning dismissed a Trump campaign claim.
Biden shared a message of optimism and called for patience on Thursday. He tweeted, “Be patient, people. The votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.”
Be patient, people. The votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.
– JB biden (@jobiden) November 5, 2020
Yesterday, the Nevada Republican Party said it had received “thousands of complaints” from voters during the general election and was closely investigating everyone.
Shortly after the GOP made that announcement, Clark County Registrar of Voters J. Gloria answered questions about it during a press conference Wednesday. He said at the time that he had not received any specific complaint from the party when asked by a journalist.
“We addressed them where we could, except that some of the voting issues were related to some of their observers. But I didn’t provide anything,” Gloria said.
Amy Abdelsed of KTNV.com contributed to this story
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