How Long Does Nevada Have To Count All The Votes?

With the Trump campaign doubling down on its challenge to the Nevada vote, state officials note that Nov. 12 is the final day that it can tabulate votes in the general election.

Appearing on the BBC on Wednesday, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said “all evidence is showing that our state conducted a free, safe and secure election.” Ford added there were many safeguards in place, such as unique barcodes and signature verification processes, to protect against fraud.

Trump’s campaign team alleged there were illegal votes cast in the Nevada contest from people who are either dead or became non-residents during the pandemic, but an explainer from the state Secretary of State office finds there are other issues of concern on the ongoing vote count.

Ballots sent in by mail that are postmarked on or before Nov. 3, Election Day, but received no later than 5 p.m. local time Nov. 10 will still be counted. If there’s an issue with signatures, voters can address that to have their ballot counted no later than 5 p.m. local time Nov. 12. By law, the state must stop counting ballots on that day.

With 76% of the expected votes counted in Nevada as of 3:05 p.m. EST on Thursday, the Associated Press finds President Donald Trump has 592,813 votes, or 48.5% of the state tally, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has 604,251 of the votes, or 49.4%, and Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgenson took 1% of the vote, or 11,647 of the ballots cast.

To win, a candidate needs 270 of the 538 votes in the Electoral College. If Biden wins Nevada, that would give him the 270 needed to declare victory. Trump’s campaign filed a formal suit on Thursday alleging some of the votes were cast illegally, despite lacking evidence.

“We’re asking the judges to go through all the irregularities to stop the counting” of disputed ballots, former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who announced the lawsuit, was quoted by CNBC as saying.

Quoting unnamed sources, Fox News reports there is “proof” that Nevada authorities are “counting illegal votes” from deceased voters. Reporting from the Las Vegas Sun finds that none of the officials with the Trump campaign who filed the suit in the state’s Clark County “provided evidence of their claims of irregularities in the vote count and none took questions from the media.”

The Reno Gazette, meanwhile, finds the state Supreme Court was not expected to weigh in on the appeal anytime soon but added it’s not unusual for a candidate to file challenges when the results are close.

On Election Day, the state’s Republican Party joined the Trump campaign in asking the state Supreme Court to stop counting mail-in ballots in Clark County, the most populous in Nevada, but the request was denied. In August, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit from the Trump campaign seeking to prevent state authorities from mailing paper ballots to registered voters.

Much of the state’s rural counties lean toward Republicans, though the densely populated countries like Clark County, home to Las Vegas, tend to vote Democratic. Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Trump in the Nevada contest in 2016.