Clark County Las Vegas, NV Press Conference on Election Count Transcript November 4

Joe Gloria: (00:12)
[inaudible 00:00:12] all right. Is everyone good? Does anyone need sound, or do you want to do a mic check maybe? Joe Gloria, registrar voters, Clark County, Nevada.

Speaker 2: (00:57)
Once again.

Joe Gloria: (00:57)
Joe Gloria, registrar voters, Clark County, Nevada. We a go?

Speaker 2: (01:06)
Good.

Joe Gloria: (01:09)
Good afternoon. I’m Joe Gloria, registrar voters, in Clark County, Nevada. Thank you for being here this afternoon. The purpose of bringing you here today is to give you some information related to when we’ll be able to report accurate numbers as to what were received on election day through the mail, and also through our mail ballot drop-off boxes. We are working feverishly to get all of that counted, so that we can make an accurate report. Beginning tomorrow, and coinciding with what the Secretary of State will be doing with her reporting, we’ll be holding a daily press conference at 10:00 AM from now until we’re done with the counting process. We’re doing this in an effort to provide transparency and to give the media an opportunity to ask any questions related to details for our mail ballot processing.

Joe Gloria: (02:02)
As of yesterday, we’ve already read all of our early voting and all of our election day in person voting. So what we have left now is to process provisional ballots, electronic ballots that were sent to overseas voters, electronic ballots that were processed for disabled voters, and also some special ballots for new residents.

Joe Gloria: (02:25)
Again, tomorrow at 10:00 AM, we’ll be prepared to report all of the counts for what we received through the mail ballot drop-off, what we received in yesterdays US mail and today’s US mail. Every day after that, we should have reports at 10 o’clock, giving you updates on all of those numbers, along with the number of ballots we’ve counted and how many ballots we anticipate we have left to count. And with that, if you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them.

Speaker 3: (02:54)
Joe, at this stage, how many do you have left to count?

Joe Gloria: (02:59)
As I mentioned, we are not prepared to give that number now [crosstalk 00:03:02].

Speaker 4: (03:03)
The Biden crime family is stealing the election. The media is covering it up. The Biden crime family is stealing this election. The media’s covering it up. The Biden crime family is stealing this election. The media’s covering it up. We want our freedom for the world. Give us our freedom, Joe Biden. Biden’s covering up this election. He’s stealing it.

Joe Gloria: (03:25)
Where were we? What was the last question?

Speaker 3: (03:27)
The question was how many ballets are outstanding yet to count?

Joe Gloria: (03:30)
Tomorrow, we’ll have a number to give you, as far as what we received in the US mail yesterday, the drop box numbers, and today’s US mail. So I don’t have an accurate number to give you, and I don’t want to give you estimations. That’s why we’re trying to set this up for a press conference every day at 10:00, so I can provide accurate.

Joe Gloria: (03:49)
I can tell you that we did read mail today that’ll be reported tomorrow, in alignment with what the Secretary of State is reporting. And we’ll have that information tomorrow on exactly what we have in house. We will also continue to receive mail. Due to statutory requirements, we have to continue to receive mail that was postmarked by November 3rd through the 10th of November. And voters who need to cure their ballot have until November the 12th, which is a week from tomorrow.

Speaker 5: (04:21)
Have you heard from the Biden campaign or the Trump campaign, as to how y’all are conducting this.

Joe Gloria: (04:26)
No.

Speaker 5: (04:27)
No.

Speaker 6: (04:29)
How long do you foresee this going on, the counting? How long do you think it’ll take?

Joe Gloria: (04:33)
Well, we’re going to canvas on the 16th, and I have guaranteed to the county commission that we’ll be prepared for that. So we could be working well into the [inaudible 00:04:41] state account, which is the 12th, and then we’ll be canvasing and reconciling our records.

Speaker 6: (04:46)
Do you notice on the Clark County website that we’ve seen yesterday [inaudible 00:04:49] everything like that, on ballot questions and everything, can you clarify what those [inaudible 00:04:58]?

Joe Gloria: (05:03)
I’m sorry. I’m not clear on exactly what you’re asking. Are you referring to our election night reporting site or the secretary’s? Because [crosstalk 00:05:11] I can’t tell you what the Secretary’s site does.

Speaker 3: (05:14)
Joe, the state is reporting that almost 602,000 mail in ballots have been returned statewide, and that 413,300 in Clark County. Do you have an estimate by percentage how many of those have been counted?

Joe Gloria: (05:34)
As of election night, we counted 337,000 mail ballots. So anything over that are in process to run through, for signature check and through the counting board, to separate those to be counted. I can’t comment on anything… I can’t comment on anything as far as information released from the Secretary of State. You’d need to ask them. [crosstalk 00:05:59].

Speaker 7: (05:57)
How many ballots are being processed a day?

Joe Gloria: (06:02)
If we’re running a full board of full staff, we can process up to 70,000 a day.

Speaker 7: (06:06)
And in terms of observers, if I understand, observing will still be allowed again during this processing period, November [inaudible 00:06:12]

Joe Gloria: (06:18)
We’re statutorily required to let anybody witness everything that we count. We’ve also provided a courtesy to the observers and the general public and the Democratic and Republican party, to monitor our mail ballot processing areas. As far as issues, we’ve had some issues that we’ve had to deal with. When those observers sign in, they have to agree to follow the rules that are guided by statute. If they don’t follow those rules, we give them a notice that if they continue to break the rules, they will be removed from the location.

Speaker 7: (06:51)
Have you had to remove anybody?

Joe Gloria: (06:51)
Yep.

Speaker 7: (06:51)
How many?

Joe Gloria: (06:51)
Can’t tell you.

Speaker 7: (06:51)
What were the [inaudible 00:06:52].

Joe Gloria: (06:53)
Oh, they were consistently trying to interact with our workers, which disrupts their work. They may have been rude or unprofessional with some of the colleagues that were there observing, or they wouldn’t remain in the observation area that we clearly defined in all of the areas.

Speaker 6: (07:11)
What’s the size of your staff, and do they work around the clock, or is there a time?

Joe Gloria: (07:16)
We run on several shifts. We have 38 permanent staff members, and we have over 300 temporary staff that are working in two locations.

Speaker 5: (07:24)
Are you having to pull anyone else in from other departments?

Joe Gloria: (07:27)
We pull in people from other departments for election day support. Clark County has been very supportive of voting for many years here. So all of our team leaders on election day are county employees. And we rely on the county for support in IT, the PIO, several departments to provide support. We can’t do it without help from the entire county.

Speaker 7: (07:48)
What kind of issues were there yesterday with voting machines?

Joe Gloria: (07:52)
With voting machines in general, yesterday we had some technology issues that centered around connectivity to our poll books. There was a small number of issues with the functionality of signing in our poll books. Voting machine issues were very small. But we were able to react and respond and get all of our polling places up and running.

Speaker 8: (08:14)
Joe, could you repeat one more time for me please, just the ballots that are still outstanding, what you’re counting right now. You said provisional and you had a few other categories. What are you counting?

Joe Gloria: (08:24)
Well, what we have to count in order to complete, we have to count our provisionals. We have electronic ballots that were sent to overseas voters. Also disabled voters had the ability to use the [inaudible 00:08:36] through the Secretary of State’s office. And we also have some new resident ballots to go along with those provisionals.

Speaker 8: (08:43)
Now, those are above and beyond mail ballots.

Joe Gloria: (08:45)
That’s correct.

Speaker 5: (08:49)
Have you had to stop or pause or poll the count at any time?

Joe Gloria: (08:52)
To stop?

Speaker 5: (08:53)
Yeah. Have you had to pause or take a break [crosstalk 00:08:57]

Joe Gloria: (08:57)
Not as a result of an issue. It’s a complicated process, when you begin the process of mail ballots. It goes through our Agilis mail ballot processing system. That’s the first step in the process. If it matches the signature there, those that don’t match begin to go through a manual process, where we send it to an audit team, a bipartisan board, and an individual employee, to match that signature. Those that still don’t match go to the cure process. That’s another division that’s doing work. After that, they go over to the counting board. And the counting board is responsible, that’s a bipartisan board that’s also working to separate the ballot from the return envelope. They’re looking to make sure that there’s no damage on the ballot, that the voter hasn’t identified the ballot. And then from there, it goes to tabulation. So when you say, start and stop, there are several steps in the process, but there have been no issues that have caused us to stop. It’s just you get breaks in the action from what’s read and what the next step is.

Speaker 5: (09:56)
But overall, no [inaudible 00:09:58].

Joe Gloria: (09:59)
No.

Speaker 5: (09:59)
Okay. Thank you.

Speaker 3: (10:01)
Hey Joe, quick question. How many ballots per hour can the Agilis machine handle [inaudible 00:10:07]? I know you’ve said that before.

Joe Gloria: (10:09)
No, that’s what we can read. That’s two different stations.

Speaker 3: (10:12)
How many [crosstalk 00:10:13].

Joe Gloria: (10:13)
When we read, we can easily process 70,000 ballots a day.

Speaker 3: (10:17)
7-0.

Joe Gloria: (10:18)
7-0. 70K. 70,000. Somebody over here.

Speaker 9: (10:21)
Yes, do you guys have still count [inaudible 00:10:23]?

Joe Gloria: (10:25)
We counted this morning, and I believe that we’re finished because we’re entering into the certification process right now.

Speaker 9: (10:31)
So the [inaudible 00:10:32] you guys haven’t stopped counting.

Joe Gloria: (10:33)
Well, we never stopped. We’ve been counting for many days, and we’ve got all of the early voting on election day. Tomorrow, again, we’ll have processes going, scanning ballots in through the Agilis. So we can’t stop. We need to make sure that we’re finishing.

Speaker 9: (10:51)
How many shifts [inaudible 00:10:49]? How many shifts your guys [inaudible 00:10:52]?

Joe Gloria: (10:54)
No. Counting today? They counted this morning, and they’re finished.

Speaker 6: (10:59)
Mr. Gloria, can you confirm [inaudible 00:11:01] later in the day or-

Joe Gloria: (11:03)
I can confirm that at tomorrow’s 10:00 AM press conference, I’ll be prepared to give you all of the numbers that I’ve previously mentioned. After that, every day at 10:00 AM, including the weekends, we’ll be here to provide you an opportunity to ask questions, give you an opportunity to hear from me on the new details and the new counts. And that’s the purpose of setting that up on a daily basis, so that you are aware we’ll be here. We want to be sure that we’re being transparent in everything that we’re doing.

Speaker 10: (11:29)
[inaudible 00:11:30].

Joe Gloria: (11:31)
I can’t hear you.

Speaker 10: (11:32)
Can you say one more time how many votes have been counted so far?

Speaker 3: (11:36)
How many votes so far.

Joe Gloria: (11:37)
Oh, how many votes? Go to the website, we’ve got a report out there. Results are on the ENR. We’ve counted all of the early voting, which was somewhere in the area of 378. We had election day turnout last night. I don’t have that in my mind. And the mail was… Check the website. I’m sorry. I don’t have all those numbers in my head.

Speaker 7: (12:00)
Joe, is there a sequence that you use for county provisional, electronic, overseas, disabled, new residents, and did you get any Help America Vote Act dollars?

Joe Gloria: (12:15)
We have some provisionals, yes. And there is a process for going through the provisional that involves us working with the Secretary of State to verify that we don’t have anybody who’s illegally voted in multiple counties. So we work in cooperation with the Secretary of State to complete everything we need to do. I have time for one more question.

Speaker 11: (12:36)
[inaudible 00:12:36] thousands of complaints about issues involving the general election. Have you received any complaints? Do you know what they’re talking about?

Joe Gloria: (12:42)
I do not.

Speaker 11: (12:48)
You’ve had no issues reported, other than the technical issues yesterday?

Joe Gloria: (12:49)
Other than the tech… You said from the GOP, I didn’t have any specific issues from them, other than issues in the polling place, regarding some of their observers. We addressed them where we could. But no, I haven’t had anything provided to me.

Speaker 8: (13:02)
Joe, did you say you got about 337,000 ballots outstanding?

Joe Gloria: (13:06)
No, that’s not what I said.

Speaker 8: (13:08)
Okay, I’m sorry.

Joe Gloria: (13:08)
We’ve counted 337. I’m going to have to get back, folks. That’s the last. We’ll see you. We will be here again tomorrow at 10:00 AM. We’ll give you some new information. Everything that I told you, I would report, as far as the numbers that we received, what we’re able to get ready to count. I will update that daily at 10:00 AM. Thank you very much.

Speaker 3: (13:28)
Joe, is any [crosstalk 00:13:31]