What voters need to know about changes to mail-in ballot verification

How to ensure your mail-in ballot counts, according to Nevada regulations

As a voter preparing to make your vote count this election year, The Nevadan-El Nevadense has you covered. Here’s everything you need to know about mail-in ballot procedures and regulations this year.

With a universal mail-in ballot system, Nevada permits votes to be counted days after the election. The date the postal service receives mail ballots plays a significant role in how ballots are processed. 

The Nevada Secretary of State recently made a slight adjustment to the verification process, authorizing county and city clerks to use a new way to verify when the US Postal Service receives a mail-in ballot. The office, which oversees elections, revised its regulations last month.

Under the new regulation, election clerks can verify when the Postal Service received a mail ballot not only by a postmark but also by a Postal Service barcode. Election officials said this ensures ballots that go without a postmark are counted.

“There are situations, a lot of situations, that are more frequent, frankly, in our rural communities, where mail will pass and simply not be postmarked,” Nevada Deputy Secretary of State Mark Wlaschin told the legislative committee at a hearing last month.

How to make sure my ballot is counted

Existing law requires that mail-in ballots be postmarked on or before the day of the election and received by a county or city clerk by 5 p.m. on the fourth day following the election. That means these votes will count as long as a postmark or barcode proves the ballot was received by the Postal Service deadline: Tuesday, June 9, for the primary election and Tuesday, Nov. 3, for the general election.

Ballots received by clerks three days after the election, before 5 p.m., are automatically deemed “to have been postmarked on or before the day of the election, and may not be rejected solely on the ground that the postmark is illegible, incomplete, or otherwise absent,” the law reads.

Nevada law requires county clerks to mail all registered voters absentee ballots, or mail-in ballots, “not later than 14 days before an election.” Mail-in ballots must also be returned to clerks in the envelope provided with a signature.

Voters can send their ballots through the mail or drop them off at ballot drop boxes. Along with voting booths, ballot drop boxes are staged at every polling location during the early voting period and on Election Day as mandated by law. Ballots can also be hand-delivered to the county clerk’s office where drop boxes are located. 

You can use the Nevada Secretary of State’s dashboard to find your nearest polling location in the state. Once your ballot is cast, you can keep track of it via your county website.