LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada's plan to conduct its primary election during a pandemic mostly by mail still resulted in long lines at the few polling places operating Tuesday, drawing complaints and questions from voters.
Reno’s Lily Baran, who waited an hour and a half to be the last voter at Washoe County’s single polling place, asked why officials offered so few polling places.
“I go and play blackjack at how many places? And how many places can I vote? That just seems a little weird," Baran said.
Eric Ellis said he waited in line for more than five hours at the county election office in North Las Vegas.
“I don’t know whether to be excited about it because there is such a great voter turnout or frustrated because this is so poorly organized,” Ellis said.
In Clark County, with more than 1.3 million voters, election officials operated three polling places, down from 172 in the 2018 primary.
In Washoe County, where lines at one point were nearly three hours long, officials encountered more delays when they had to empty the polling place several times and sanitize them after accommodating voters who refused to wear masks or have their temperatures taken.
Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula said Wednesday that she does not expect the county to only offer one polling place in the general election.
"We won’t be seeing this hopefully again in November. We’re very hopeful the slow of the spread of the virus will continue to decline in our region so we won’t have any need to do an all mail-in election,” she said.
Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak did not respond to inquiries Wednesday about the delays and whether plans would be changed for November.
Few people have typically voted by mail in Nevada, but to limit the risk of spreading the coronavirus at polling places, the state mailed ballots to voters.
They had the option for two weeks to cast in-person ballots at early voting centers, but thousands turned out anyway on Tuesday.
The secretary of state’s office on Tuesday night said in a statement that voters had “ample opportunity” to cast ballots in the primary with 14 days of early voting and ballots being mailed to every registered voter in Clark County. In other counties, ballots were mailed to “active” voters, which are generally those who participated in one of the past two federal elections or recently updated their registration.
Clark County's top elections official, Registrar Joe Gloria, said the process was also slower than usual because instead of using voting machines the county relied on paper ballots. They were printed on demand when voters arrived because officials had to match a voter's precinct and political affiliation.
Clark County officials did not immediately comment Wednesday afternoon.
Election officials delayed any results until early Wednesday morning to allow hundreds still in line when the polls closed to cast ballots.
Steve Connolly, the last voter to cast a ballot at the Paradise Recreation Center in Las Vegas, said Wednesday that when he finally cast his ballot at 3 a.m., election workers took his photograph to mark the moment.
“I definitely feel like, in line, there were a lot of people talking about it," Connolly said. “I stayed because I wasn’t going to give up,” Connolly said.
The top-ticket races that voters were deciding included contests four U.S. House seats. The incumbents — three Democrats and a Republican — easily sailed through their primary challenges. The AP has not declared a winner in the three Republican and one Democratic contests for those seeking to take on the incumbents in November.
More results are expected to be released Thursday morning.
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Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada, Ken Ritter in Las Vegas, Sam Metz in Carson City and photographer John Locher in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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