No winner in Nevada, counting continues in multiple states

The presidential race in Nevada was too close to call early Wednesday morning, as former Vice President Joe Biden narrowly led President Donald Trump by less than 1 percent.

Early unofficial results posted by the Secretary of State showed the Democratic candidate at 49.3 percent and the Republican incumbent at 48.7 percent. Fewer than 9,000 votes separated the candidates statewide. Biden led in Clark and Washoe counties. Trump led in the rural districts. A significant number of mail and provisional ballots have yet to be counted.

In remarks made from the White House late Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed victory, something election watchdogs have long warned about. He double-downed on reckless rhetoric about voter fraud and threatened Supreme Court intervention. He falsely declared victory in several key battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, despite the fact that a significant number of ballots have not yet been counted in those states and no winner has been declared. He also dismissed his projected loss in Arizona, saying he shouldn’t be discounted there because there were still many votes to be counted.

Trump did not mention Nevada.

Nevada had been targeted by the Trump re-election campaign as a possible flip. Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016 by less than 3 percent. Barack Obama won handily in 2008 and 2012.

The Trump campaign filed several lawsuits challenging Nevada’s election procedures, which were changed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature during a special session earlier this year. Those suits were dismissed.

On Election Day, the Trump campaign sued to keep several polling locations in Clark County open for one additional hour because those locations had opened late due to technical difficulties. Their motion was granted and 30 polling places remained open until 8 pm. Nevada Democrats did not oppose the extension of polling hours.

Election officials have emphasized that results in Nevada could take several days. Processing mail ballots simply takes longer. Also, Nevada law allows ballots received up to seven days after Election Day to be counted, so long as those ballots were postmarked on or before Election Day.

The secretary of state’s office has announced no additional Nevada result will be released until Thursday morning.

That’s it for election results updates until 9:00 am on Nov. 5. Here’s what has been counted so far:

All in person early votes
All in person Election Day votes
All mail ballots through Nov. 2

1/2

— Nevada Elections (@NVElect) November 4, 2020

Official results are expected no later than Nov. 16.