By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and KEN RITTER, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — With control of the U.S. Senate on the road, Nevada‘s protracted ballot count ground through a fourth day as election officials tallied 1000’s of votes ahead of a Saturday deadline to just accept finally arriving mail-ins.
Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was running barely behind Republican Adam Laxalt, but with the remaining tens of 1000’s 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 within the lead because the count drags on.
With the Senate evenly divided, Nevada is certainly one of three undetermined races that can determine which party controls the chamber. If either party wins the state plus the race in Arizona, it is going to 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 probably be decided in Georgia.
Nevada’s count has taken several days partly due to the mail voting system created by the state Legislature in 2020 that requires counties to just accept ballots postmarked by Election Day in the event that they arrive as much as 4 days later. Even after the counts are finished this weekend, voters have until the top of the day Monday to “cure” — or fix clerical problems with — their mail ballots, enabling those to be added into the ultimate tally.
Political Cartoons
Nevada, a closely divided swing state, is one of the vital racially diverse within 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 within the fallacious direction, and about 5 in 10 called the economy an important issue facing the country, in accordance with AP VoteCast, a survey of two,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 a couple of third of voters said their families are falling behind financially.
But that did not necessarily translate into anger at President Joe Biden or his party. About half considered inflation an important issue facing the U.S., but they were evenly split over whether or not they think higher prices are as a consequence of Biden’s policies or aspects outside his control.
Nevada can also be a famously live-and-let-live state, and Cortez Masto and other Democrats made preserving abortion rights a centerpiece of their campaigns. In response to VoteCast, 7 in 10 wanted the procedure kept legal in all or most cases.
Republicans, nonetheless, relentlessly hammered the economic argument, contending it was time for a leadership change. Additionally they 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 within 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 within the state’s three other congressional district seats, currently held by Democrats.
Associated Press author 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 take a look at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more concerning the issues and aspects at play within the midterms.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material might not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
