Nevada’s secretary of state is outlining a timeline for counting ballots for the primaries

Ahead of Nevada’s June 11 primary, Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar outlined new guidelines on when counties should begin tabulating votes to ensure results are announced as quickly as possible.

Nevada residents have already started receiving ballots in their mailboxes, with in-person voting beginning on Saturday, May 25 and running through Friday, June 7.

Aguilar told reporters Wednesday that his office is directing county officials to begin tabulating early voting results and mail-in ballots at 8 a.m. on Election Day.

Provinces are instructed to submit their results to the Secretary of State by 6 p.m. so that “our internal team can conduct the verification and quality assurance as we always do,” he said.

“The new guidelines are very important as more voters choose to participate in the election process in various ways, either during early voting or by mail,” Aguilar said. “This new process will allow us to release more data to the public more quickly.”

The timeline, Aguilar said, will not only help with transparency and allow results to be released quickly, but also help “get ahead of any potential misinformation” surrounding the election.

Republican officials, emboldened by former President Donald Trump, have used delays in election results and the voting process itself to baselessly claim that there has been rampant voter fraud in recent election cycles.

Aguilar said 120 voters cast ballots through Nevada’s Effective Absentee System for Elections (EASE), which is available to military and overseas voters, tribal members, and people with disabilities.

More than 4,700 ballots have been returned statewide.

Although voting by mail has become universal, voters can submit a form to opt out of receiving a ballot by mail. There have been hiccups in that process.

The Reno Gazette Magazine reported that 2,700 people in Washoe County received a mail-in ballot despite being asked not to receive one.

Aguilar said the state is in the process of implementing a new “top-down voter registration system“That would help address issues like those in Washoe County.

“I think you see the challenges of the old system,” he said.

He added that the province has “done a great job addressing the issues and going public” and that he “did not foresee any future problems.”

The Secretary of State’s office originally announced they would implement the new voter registration system before this year’s primaries in June, but that timeline was changed after county election officials raised concerns.

In addition to new guidelines, Aguilar highlighted recent statewide efforts to ramp up recruitment efforts to increase poll workers, including reaching veterans and youth 16 and older.

“Last month, we announced a new partnership with Vet the Vote to encourage the veteran community, who know the value of serving and protecting our fundamental rights, to once again act for our community,” he said.

Aguilar campaigned on efforts to protect poll workers, who suffered increased intimidation due to misinformation and conspiracy theories.

The state had one last year Election Workers Protection Act to make threatening or intimidating election officials a criminal offense.

Sigal Chattah, a Republican who lost her 2022 race for attorney general by the largest margin of any statewide race that year, filed a lawsuit challenging the bill on behalf of three plaintiffs, including a virulent right-wing conspiracy theorist and regular GOP donor.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in April.

“Despite the challenges to our Election Worker Protection Act, we are more focused than ever on ensuring our poll workers are safe and protected during the June primary and November general elections,” Aguilar said.