LAS VEGAS - Former Vice President Joe Biden maintains a slight lead in Nevada, with just about 12,000 votes more than President Donald Trump. However, more than 50,000 mail-in ballots remain to be counted in Clark County alone.
Election officials in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, hope to have the bulk of mail-in ballots counted and tabulated by Sunday. They said they hope to release updated totals each morning around 12 p.m. ET.
According to the state’s website, former President Joe Biden currently has 604,251 of the vote or 49.43% votes total.
President Trump has 592,813 of the vote or 48.50% votes total.
That is a difference of 11,438.
These are not the final results.
In Clark County, the registrar of voters, Joe Gloria, said as of Thursday morning, they had more than roughly 50,000 mail-in ballots to count Thursday. There are also about 60,000 provisional ballots that his county needs to verify and count. All in-person votes were tabulated and reported already.
"That is a number I cannot tell you (how many ballots are left to count). I do not know how many ballots will come through the mail," Gloria said. "I can't count the mail ballots until they are all delivered," and they can be delivered up until Tuesday.
In Nevada, all mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are valid and can be counted up until one week after Election Day.
Meanwhile, just moments before the updated vote totals were announced, Trump's campaign announced they will file a lawsuit in Nevada, alleging various forms of potential voter fraud. This is the fourth lawsuit the campaign has filed in the last 24 hours; Wednesday the Trump campaign filed in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt said observers have not been able to observe signature comparisons and ballot counting.
The Trump campaign says there is also proof that non-residents voted, and those votes are being counted. In Nevada, residents need to live in the state for at least 30 days before casting a ballot.
The Trump campaign's legal action includes the first-hand account from a woman, Jill Stokke, who says she went to her polling place on Tuesday and was told she had already cast her ballot. She says she always votes in person, and asked election officials about it. She claims someone stole her mail-in ballot, and that of her roommate.
Stokke has trouble seeing, and told local media she cannot read the print on the ballot without help.
When asked about the incident, Clark County's registrar of voters, Joe Gloria, said he is aware of the Stokke's claim, and feels confident in how it was handled.
“I personally dealt with (her issue). She brought her claim to me. We reviewed her ballot, and in our opinion, it is her signature. We also gave her an opportunity to provide a statement, if she wanted to object to that and provide a challenge to that. She refused to do so. A member of the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office investigations team also interviewed her, and they had no issue with the assistance we tried to give her,” Gloria said.
"Due to all the irregularities," Laxalt said they are asking the state "to stop the counting of improper votes."
In response, at a later press conference, a Clark County official said their goal is not to be fast, but to be accurate.
"We are not aware of any improper ballots being processed," Gloria said. He also said they have done everything they can to accommodate observers and to make their process transparent.
These are similar arguments made in Trump campaign lawsuits filed in Michigan and Pennsylvania about observers not being allowed to observe ballot counts. In Georgia, Thursday morning, a judge has dismissed the Trump campaign's lawsuit.
Biden shared a message of optimism and called for patience Thursday. "Be patient, folks. Votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are," he tweeted.
Be patient, folks. Votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020
Yesterday, the Nevada Republican Party said that it has received "thousands of complaints" by voters with issues during the General Election and that it's investigating each one closely.
Shortly after the GOP made that announcement, Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria answered questions about it during a press conference on Wednesday. He said at the time that he had not received any specific complaints from the party when asked about it by a reporter.
"Other than issues in the polling place regarding some of their observers," said Gloria, "we addressed them where we could. But no I haven't had anything provided to me."
Amy Abdelsayed from KTNV.com contributed to this story
