The final step in certifying the results of the November election happens Monday when Nevada’s six electors meet at the state Capitol to cast their electoral college votes.
The six electors — one for each member of Nevada’s congressional delegation — will meet in the Old Assembly chambers at 2 p.m. Dec. 19 to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Wayne Thorley, elections deputy for the Secretary of State’s office, said under Nevada law, the electors can’t switch their vote. That’s different from some states where electors are free to change their allegiance if they wish.
He told the Elections Task Force the election went very smoothly with just a few complaints mostly by people who were at the wrong polling place. He said only 30-35 formal complaints were filed, primarily about electioneering too close to the polling places. Nevada law prohibits electioneering within 100 feet of the entrance to a polling place.
There also were a few complaints about petition gatherers and electioneering being banned at some polling places but election officials point out those are primarily from polling sites on private property and that the property owners have the legal right to bar petition gathering on their property.
Thorley said there were two recounts. Assembly District 31 in Sparks and a sample recount of the presidential vote in 5 percent of state precincts. Neither recount changed the results reported election night.
In all, 76.7 percent of Nevadans registered voted in the presidential balloting. That’s 1.025 million votes. While Thorley said that’s down from the 81 percent who voted four years ago, it’s actually up in terms of total votes cast by 110,000 because of the overall increase in total registered voters. There are now almost 1.5 million active voters registered in the state.
Early voting, he said, accounted for nearly two thirds of the ballots cast — 62.4 percent. Some 30.6 percent of the state voted on election day with 7 percent casting absentee ballots.
The two counties with the best turnout were Carson City at 91.3 percent and Douglas County at 93.1 percent. They were the only two counties with higher than 90 percent turnout. Lowest was Mineral County at 66.3 percent.
The big counties were in between with Washoe at just under 79 percent and Clark just under 75 percent.