Nevada voters face long wait for final counts

About 80 percent of all ballots cast in the 2022 Nevada U.S. Senate race were submitted early or by mail. This heavy reliance on advance voting shapes how results will appear on Election Day, Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Voters in Clark County and the rest of the state will elect officials for federal, state, and local offices. The Associated Press will track outcomes for governor, U.S. House, state Senate, and state Assembly seats. Local races include the mayor of Henderson, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, controller, and state treasurer. State Supreme Court seats and statewide ballot measures are also on the ballot.

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time. State law requires polling places to remain open until every voter in line at that hour has cast a ballot. In the 2022 midterms, roughly 1 million votes were cast in the state's U.S. Senate contest. The high volume of advance ballots means the first data of the night will not reflect the full electorate. Every Nevada county is expected to release some early in-person or mail voting results at the start of the night. Nearly every county will release almost all in-person early voting results in the first update.

About half of the counties are expected to release all or almost all mail voting results initially. The other half will hold back some mail data. In both Clark and Washoe counties, the first vote update of the night typically includes all early in-person voting results and partial mail voting results. No in-person Election Day results are released in that first update for those two counties. This pattern ensures that the early data reflects voters who arrived at polling places before Tuesday, not those casting ballots on the day itself.

Historical data shows how quickly results can roll in after polls close. In the 2024 general election, the first results were reported at 12:54 a.m. Eastern Time on November 6. That was about three hours after polls closed. The state reached 50 percent of votes reporting less than 10 minutes later, at 1:02 a.m. Eastern Time. By 8:26 p.m. Eastern Time that same day, 90 percent of votes were reporting.

The Associated Press does not project winners. It declares a winner only when no scenario allows a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race remains uncalled, the AP will cover newsworthy developments like candidate concessions. Recounts in Nevada are not automatic. A candidate may request and pay for a recount regardless of the vote margin. The AP may declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.