(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Possible majority control of the US Senate might not be decided anytime soon, thanks to a huge dump of Democrats’s favorite vote-grabbing scheme flooding Nevada with thousands of mail-in ballots that could take days to process.
The same mail-in deluge in causing delays in declaring a winner in the state’s gubernatorial tilt.
“Overwhelmed election officials in Nevada say that they have been flooded by thousands of mail-in ballots, and that it may take several days to count the votes and upload results,” reported the New York Times.
Nevada started requiring last year that mail-in ballots be sent to all registered voters. Under the new rules, ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and will be counted if they arrive as late as Nov. 11.
Both of Nevada races have been hotly contested and contentious, with major implications resting on the outcomes. Republican US Senate candidate Adam Laxalt on Wednesday was holding a razor-thin edge over incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, but the late-arriving and controversial mail-in votes could throw that into disarray.
Republicans are facing the same possible scenario in the state’s governor’s race, where Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo is locked in a dead heat race with first-term incumbent Democrat Steve Sisolak.
As votes continued to trickle in, no candidate appeared ready to concede anytime soon.
“We are going to win this race,” Laxalt said on election night. “We had people voting in the snow and then the rain because they want a better Nevada and a better America.
“Unfortunately, we’re in for a long night and maybe a few days into this week as all the votes are tabulated.”
Lombardo shared the same outlook.
“We don’t know anything yet,” he told supporters at an election watch party Tuesday night, according to the Nevada Independent.
By early Wednesday morning, with ballots still being counted, Lombardo was leading Sisolak by almost 40,000 votes and Laxalt had extended his lead over Cortez Masto by about 23,000, the Independent reported.
“I anticipate you’re going to be calling me Governor Lombardo in a couple of days,” the optimistic Republican said.
