Nevada count enters Day 4 with Senate, governorship on line
With control of the U.S. Senate on the line, Nevada’s protracted ballot count is grinding through a fourth day
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.With control of the U.S. Senate on the line, Nevada's protracted ballot count ground through a fourth day as election officials tallied thousands of votes ahead of a Saturday deadline to accept finally arriving mail-ins.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was running slightly behind Republican Adam Laxalt, but with the remaining tens of thousands of uncounted ballots mainly coming from the state's urban cores, her campaign expressed optimism she could overtake her challenger. Laxalt, meanwhile, has steadily predicted he'll stay in the lead as the count drags on.
With the Senate evenly divided, Nevada is one of three undetermined races that will determine which party controls the chamber. If either party wins the state plus the race in Arizona, it will have a majority even before a December runoff in Georgia between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. If the Arizona and Nevada seats split between parties, control of the Senate will be decided in Georgia.
Nevada's count has taken several days partly because of the mail voting system created by the state Legislature in 2020 that requires counties to accept ballots postmarked by Election Day if they arrive up to four days later. Even after the counts are finished this weekend, voters have until the end of the day Monday to “cure” — or fix clerical problems with — their mail ballots, enabling those to be added into the final tally.
Nevada, a closely divided swing state, is one of the most racially diverse in the nation, a working class state whose residents have been especially hard hit by inflation and other economic turmoil
Roughly three-fourths of Nevada voters said the country is headed in the wrong direction, and about 5 in 10 called the economy the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of 2,100 of the state's voters.
Voters viewed the economy negatively, with VoteCast finding nearly 8 in 10 saying economic conditions are either not so good or poor. Only about 2 in 10 called the economy excellent or good. And about a third of voters said their families are falling behind financially.
But that didn't necessarily translate into anger at President Joe Biden or his party. About half considered inflation the most important issue facing the U.S., but they were evenly split over whether they think higher prices are due to Biden’s policies or factors outside his control.
Nevada is also a famously live-and-let-live state, and Cortez Masto and other Democrats made preserving abortion rights a centerpiece of their campaigns. According to VoteCast, 7 in 10 wanted the procedure kept legal in all or most cases.
Republicans, however, relentlessly hammered the economic argument, contending it was time for a leadership change. They also sought to capitalize on lingering frustrations about pandemic shutdowns that devastated Las Vegas' tourist-centric economy in 2020. Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak was trailing his challenger, Republican Joe Lombardo, on Thursday though that race, too, was too early to call.
On Thursday morning, The Associated Press declared Republican Stavros Anthony the winner in the lieutenant governor race, while Republican Andy Mathews was elected state controller.
The state's lone Republican congressman, Mark Amodei, easily won reelection in his mostly rural district in northern Nevada. The AP has not yet called winners in the state's three other congressional district seats, currently held by Democrats.
___
Associated Press writer Scott Sonner in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. And check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms.