Nevada Supreme Court certifies general election, governor says results not fast enough
The Nevada Supreme Court certified the 2024 general election results on Tuesday morning in Carson City.
State law requires the justices to sign off on the election results for statewide offices, including U.S. Senators, Representatives, and state legislators, on the 4th Tuesday in November. Those results are now official.
On Dec. 17, the Electoral College will meet to cast electoral votes for Donald Trump and JD Vance based on the popular vote in Nevada.
Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar presented election highlights. He said five rural counties had a voter turnout of over 85%. Lincoln County had the highest turnout, with 92% of registered voters casting their ballots. He also said there was a surge in the online voting system for overseas citizens, active duty military members and their families, voters with disabilities, and tribal voters living on colonies or reservations from 1,273 users in the 2020 general election to 6,848 this year.
However, statewide voter turnout was nearly 73%, which is slightly lower than the 77% turnout in 2020. This was Aguilar’s first presidential election as secretary of state.
“Our office worked in close collaboration with the counties to immediately address issues and combat misinformation, but it’s still not ideal for any of us,” Aguilar said. “The other good news, none of the issues prevented a voter’s ability to vote or altered the results in any way.”
Aguilar will soon be meeting with county clerks and staff to discuss how to improve for the 2026 election.
In a written statement, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo said he’s grateful for the work of the Nevada Secretary of State and Supreme Court but said that the state’s election system needs to be reformed.
“The time it takes to count ballots and finalize our elections in Nevada is simply unacceptable. Nevadans deserve timely election results. This is not a complex issue – all ballots should be received by Election Day. This must be immediately addressed in the upcoming legislative session,” Lombardo said.
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled against a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee, confirming that mail-in ballots can be accepted three days after Election Day without being postmarked and four days if the ballot is postmarked by Election Day.
Aguilar has also voiced his frustrations with the speed of election results, and he answered questions about this during a press conference after the election certification in Carson City.
“There’s a lot of nuances to that. Each county is different. But obviously, we had 90% of the vote out election night, which was a big thing to be able to look at the presidential race and have a confirming idea of what Nevadans wanted and expected,” Aguilar said. “But then the last 10% took a little bit of time, especially in Clark County, and we need to look at the system and say, ‘How do we give Nevadans the results they want on election night?'”
For example, the Associated Press did not call the race for incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen until Nov. 8.
When pressed further, Aguilar said there isn’t a concrete idea yet on changing election deadlines.
KUNR’s coverage of Nevada State Government is made possible by a generous grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that aims to boost awareness and engagement with coverage of Nevada State Government.
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