Clark County, Nevada Press Conference Election Count Update Transcript November 6

Joseph Gloria: (00:00)
For answering and also give anyone who’s watching the ability to hear your question. So please work together to use the microphones. If you’re not using the microphone, I’m going to ask you to get to the microphone to ask the question. Now starting off, I’d like to put some information out for voters to help them in trying to track their ballot. There are two systems in place. One is being sponsored by the secretary of state, Ballot Tracks. So any voter who’s trying to track information on the status of their ballot through Ballot Tracks should really put that question through the secretary of state’s office. My staff isn’t capable of answering any questions related to Ballot Tracks. We do not use it. It’s the secretary of state who does. In my system on the website, clarkcountynv.gov/vote, we have registered voter services. And in registered voter services, our voters can check to see the status of their ballot as far as it being received by my office.

All voters should be aware that vote history will not be posted until after the canvas. So if you’re looking on the secretary of state’s site to see if your vote was posted as voted, you will not see that information. That information is not posted until after the election. Now, I’m going to go through a series of information here, and then we’re going to give you an opportunity to ask questions. I have a change from yesterday. The expected turnout that I reported yesterday was incorrect. The 51,000 votes that I reported would be available today is actually a little over 30,000. And here’s the reason why. When we process ballots on the counting board, our tracking mechanism changed from precinct based ballots to page numbers.

For the first time in Clark County, the ballot is so large that our ballot is actually two pages long. And so they have to track that when we scan ballots so that we can verify that the count on those pages is correct. My staffer inadvertently and mistakenly reported to me that there were 51,000 precinct ballots to count yesterday and in actuality, it was 51,000 pages. So that explains why when you saw the updates today, you only saw 30,000 instead of the 51. However, the universe of ballots that I communicated yesterday is still accurate. The only thing you need to do is take it down for approximately 20,500 from the 51 to the 30,000. But the 63,000 ballots that are reported yesterday are in the state, in the system in various stages. So those will still expect it to be reported.

Beginning today, we will begin to report our results two times a day. So you’ve already seen the update for this morning. In the afternoon, we will be putting up a fresh report on the mail ballots that have been read into the system sometime before four o’clock. We’re required to report to the secretary of state first. Once they’ve indicated to us that they’ve received it and it’s verified, we’ll be able to post on our end. So rather than giving you a specific time, I’ll just tell you that it’ll be sometime before 4:00 PM.

Now, one more time, I’d like to go through the ballots that are separate from that universe that are reported. We still have the provisional ballots. All of our laptops from election day have been downloaded. So all of that information is available to my staff. Today, we will start in earnest reviewing provisional ballots. There are 60,000 of those to go through in various categories.

Now I want to remind you that we have to coordinate with the secretary of state, because again, we are not a top-down registration state. We work from the bottom up. So all 17 counties have to report to the secretary. They still have not given me the instructions. I know that they’re on the way, but at some point they’ll let us know when to send our report up. And that will be the tool that they use to match against the other 16 counties in Nevada, to make sure that nobody’s duplicated a vote in one county to the next, because we want to prevent that. Once we do that, we can begin to release the provisional ballots in to count.

However, that won’t happen until the secretary of state verifies that report. A reminder that the ID required voters, their deadline is today at 5:00 PM. For those who were required to provide an ID that has to be sent to us by 5:00 PM today. We have a cure line available at (702) 455-6552, where we have staff available to assist those individuals was getting that into us. The U.S. mail update for this morning, we received 241 ballots in today’s mail. That will be added to that number that I’m calling my universe of ballots to be counted. It’s looking pretty clear that the number of ballots is going to continue to go down. However, I wanted to ensure the general public, we have been working very close with our regional supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service, and they’re doing an excellent job of reviewing all of the post stations here in Clark County.

In fact, they have them sweeping regularly more than once on a daily basis. And if they identify anything that needs to be delivered to the office, they get it to our office within three to four hours. It doesn’t even go to the process of having it set up for us to pick up, they’re physically delivering those. So we appreciate their effort. They’re making sure just as we are that we’re counting every ballot that’s eligible to be counted. So our thanks to the U.S. Postal Service locally.

The cure process is another group of ballots that we need to process. They have until Thursday, the 12th of November to cure that. My staff will not leave this facility until we’ve counted all of those ballots that have been identified as curable. [inaudible 00:06:09] was very clear in the legislative special session that we have to have all ballots counted by November 12th. And with that, I’ll open it up for questions. Remember, you need to be at the mic. Good morning, right there, right there. Whoever’s [inaudible 00:00:06:29] yeah.

Jacob: (06:30)
Good afternoon or-

Morning. Morning.

Jacob: (06:31)
… good morning, Mr. Registrar, can you tell us the number of ballots that you expect in the afternoon dump? So you said the 31,000 was the total for this morning. It won’t be, or 30,000.

It was not 31,000.

Jacob: (06:43)
I’m sorry-

But yeah.

Jacob: (06:44)
… 30. Can you, so let’s just be clear here.

30,403 was the-

Jacob: (06:49)
30,403. This afternoon, before 4:00 PM. How many do you expect?

Because we’re turning dump two reports a day, I can’t accurately give you that number. The only thing that I can tell you is the numbers that I reported as my universe of ballots that need to be counted is still accurate. So we know we’re going to need to get approximately 63,000 ballots into the system.

Jacob: (07:10)
So still 63, go ahead, I’m sorry.

63,000 over the next couple of days will be entered into the system.

Jacob: (07:16)
Okay. So 63,000 still outstanding, 30,000 this morning and TBD, you don’t know how many this afternoon?

No, I can’t give you that number accurately because we’ve changed to a two report in the day. And so they’re going to work as hard as they can. They’re being very efficient back there and the way that they count through the ICC. So we’ll get as many in as we can. And then we’ll continue to read after that report. And there will be another report tomorrow morning with whatever we read this afternoon and evening.

Jacob: (07:43)
Okay, thanks. This is my colleague Jo Ling Kent.

Hello, Joy Ling.

Jo Ling Kent: (07:45)
Thank you, Jacob. I know we talked about the pace yesterday, but there’s increasing pressure on your County to count faster. You have the capacity to count 71,000 ballots a day. Why not process that number, Joe?

I described yesterday, the process is very deliberate in the way we process here. So through the Agilist, which is our mail ballot processing system, that’s the first step. That Agilist machine will verify signatures and then those that aren’t verified as a match that has to go to a manual, physical process. And there are two steps in that process where we have staff running through those. We have to run those through those two steps. And then at that point, it moves to our counting board. Our counting board then works to verify those records, to make sure that our batches are matching and that we’re reconciling correctly. And they go through the process of separating the ballots and getting them over here for us to count. So there’s no speeding up that process.

As I indicated yesterday, we’re going to continue to count and make sure that we’re being accurate. We’re anticipating and hoping that with the number of ballots that we see now, we should hopefully be ready to have a final count on the majority of mail ballots by Sunday at some time.

By Sunday. And what’s your message to all of the people out there watching Clark County who say, “Come on, let’s go. Hurry it up.”

I think I mentioned yesterday that our priority here is to make sure that we’re accurate in what we’re doing. So we’re not interested in moving as fast as we can. We want to be accurate. We’re very fortunate at this point that we’ve had staff working for many days and they’re very efficient in what they’re doing. So we’re confident that the work is being done accurately. And that’s what our main goal is.

Thank you.

Speaker 4: (09:33)
Can you talk about the circumstances that require an ID. What are those ID required ballots because there’s quite a lot of them and how are those different from the other ballots that need to be cured?

The easiest explanation for the cure is that those voters would send back a mail ballot that is not signed at all, or that has a signature that doesn’t match all of our history of signatures in the system, they enter into the cure process. That’s statutorily required and we have to mail a notice to the voter. And if the voter has given us an email or a phone number, we also contact him through an automated message with that as well. Those are the cures. The ID required can come from many different areas. In the state of Nevada now we’ve implemented same day registration. The online registrations that go through the secretary of state’s NOVA site, state law requires that those voters show up to vote. Our system indicates that they registered online, they’re required to show an ID.

So they showed up to vote in person, either early voting or election day, and they didn’t have their ID. So they’re required to provide that by today at 5:00 PM in order for those votes to count. We also have a large number of mail ballots. Everybody’s well aware that we’ve sent a mail ballot to all active, registered voters in Clark County. So there’s not as much familiarity from the general public on what to do with a mail ballot. We very clearly indicate on the mailing envelope, those voters who need to send in an ID because in their registration, we were unable to match correctly with our check with DMV or social security. And so they must provide an ID in order for us to hold up the integrity of the process. So in those two groups, that’s a majority of the IDs that are required. Next question.

Speaker 5: (11:26)
Joe, a new federal lawsuit from the Trump campaign has requested that the use of the Agilist system be stopped completely. And that instead all ballots be verified by hand, the signatures be verified by hand. What would that do to the counting process if your access to Agilist is lost?

If they were successful, I will mention that that’s already been heard in court and that request was denied. So we’re hoping that that stays consistent. However, if we were unable to use the Agilist machine, we’re working hard to get everything through now so we won’t have to worry about that, but that would slow down our process tremendously because we’ve geared our process to count on the Agilist machine. So we’d have to go completely manual at that point. And so, yeah, it slow down our process without a doubt. Next question.

Speaker 6: (12:17)
So the Nevada GOP has confirmed this morning that they have dropped or have come into an agreement with the County on the lawsuit that was issued yesterday. Can you comment on that?

Your question was that the Nevada GOP has…

Speaker 6: (12:33)
They’ve confirmed that the campaign has dropped the federal lawsuit that was issued out yesterday.

Well, I may be incorrect, but I think they’ve re-instituted that. So I don’t know if you have the current information.

Speaker 6: (12:44)
From last week. The lawsuit from two weeks ago.

Speaker 7: (12:52)
Hi, Mr. Gloria, just to be completely clear. Yesterday, you said there were 63,262 outstanding ballots, correct?

Correct.

Speaker 7: (13:00)
We have those 30,000, that new batch and then so the outstanding ballots would be around 30-

No, sir. No. That’s incorrect.

Speaker 7: (13:08)
…. 33,000?

You’re confusing the two numbers that I reported. So yesterday what I stated was that we expected to see 51,000 ballots read yesterday.

Speaker 7: (13:20)
Correct.

Because the page numbers were reported mistakenly instead of the precinct count. That count went down from 51 to 30.

Speaker 7: (13:28)
Right.

So the 60-

Speaker 7: (13:29)
But the outstanding-

Let me finish. So the 63,000 are still in process and need to be counted.

Speaker 7: (13:37)
So bottom line, outstanding ballots right now. Out of that number of 63,000 still 63,000 24 hours later?

That is correct.

Speaker 8: (13:45)
[inaudible 00:13:52].

63,000.

Speaker 8: (13:51)

I wish you’d come to the mic so that I could hear you well. Anybody who wants to answer, ask a question, please take the time to come up front. We’re going to go right here.

Speaker 9: (14:07)
Mr. Gloria, you mentioned receiving, I think, 241 ballots through the postal service today. How many, do you know, have you received since election day?

Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not prepared with the entire total. I have today’s. In yesterday’s press conference I believe that I mentioned that. Oh no, I do have it here. So for election day on Wednesday, the mail intake was 4,208. Next question.

Speaker 10: (14:36)
Good morning. In the lawsuit that was filed today, in addition to asking for the Agilist machine to be stopped, again, they also alleged that there were 3,000 plus instances of ineligible ballots, which were cast. Do you have any evidence of that that has been given to you? And do you have any knowledge of those 3,000 ballots that the Nevada GOP is alleging?

They provided us with a list where we’ll have to begin to look through that. However, their lawsuit is based on something that happens regularly. You don’t have to live here in order to be eligible to vote here. This is a military town. We have Nellis Air Force Base. We also have several students that travel outside of the state to go to school. Those folks are eligible to vote here in Nevada. We also have local representative, congressmen, senators. They’re up in Washington working, but they live here, they vote here. So we’ll have to look through those numbers, but it’s not out of the ordinary at all for somebody not to live here, but be eligible to vote here. So we will look at that and we’ll review it.

Speaker 10: (15:41)
Do you know-

You need the mic.

Speaker 10: (15:44)
… Sorry, just to quickly follow up on the number of military ballots. Sort of related, but separate. You had also said the other day that’s part of what you’re going through in addition to provisional ballots. How many outstanding military ballots are there? Do you know?

The military ballots have been read into the system.

Speaker 11: (16:03)
Hi, sir. Can I just clarify the math?

Yes.

Speaker 11: (16:09)
Total number of outstanding ballots, including the provisional as well is what?

The provisional are beginning to be looked at in earnest today because all of the data-

Speaker 11: (16:17)
Just give me the number.

I’ll answer the question. The provisional count would be 60,000. Mail ballots that still need to be run through the system and are expected to run through for count is 63,262, approximately.

Speaker 11: (16:30)
Okay. And are we subtracting 30,000 from that 63 or not?

No.

Speaker 11: (16:34)
So it was none of the 63 have been counted.

No, sir.

Speaker 11: (16:37)
So where’s that 30,000 number that you mentioned when you first started?

It’s in your report today. Check the website, clarkcountynv.gov/vote.

Speaker 11: (16:45)
Okay. But so why isn’t that coming out of the 63?

Because I mentioned yesterday that we had 51,000 ballots to count. That was incorrect because I was given the number of pages.

Speaker 11: (16:56)
Right.

30,000 is in the system and reported this morning.

Speaker 11: (17:01)
So 30,000. And so, there’s still 63,000 and the 60,000 beyond the 30,000.

Don’t mumble.

Speaker 11: (17:09)
So 30,000 were counted yesterday.

That is correct.

Speaker 11: (17:12)
There’s still 63,000 mail ballots to be counted?

That is correct.

Speaker 11: (17:16)
And 60,000 provisional?

Those won’t all be counted-

Speaker 11: (17:19)
More or less.

… [inaudible 00:17:20] Won’t meet the requirements for them to be registered, but they need to be reviewed.

Speaker 11: (17:23)
Okay. And what are the hours of the counting?

The hours of what, sir?

Speaker 11: (17:27)
What are the hours that your people are working on the count?

I can have a member of my staff make that available.

Speaker 11: (17:32)
And how many people roughly are involved in this process?

At least 300.

Speaker 11: (17:36)
Really? Okay. Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Speaker 12: (17:42)
Mr. Gloria. And at the risk of going back to math. From 51,000, we reported 30,000. Does that leave 21,000?

No, sir.

Speaker 12: (17:54)
Okay. And?

I started out by explaining that the numbers are reported yesterday were incorrect. And I gave an explanation as to why. Our staff at the counting board incorrectly, mistakenly provided me with the number of pages that they sent over to be read. However, that was not the number of precinct ballots. Every ballot in Nevada that’s sent to the voters represents two pages. And so there were actually only 30,000 ballots that were read. So I’ve corrected that and explained to you why that occurred.

Speaker 12: (18:27)
So the 63,262 and no more than that?

No, there could be more, we still have cures. We still have IDs that need to be [inaudible 00:18:40] and we still have provisionals.

Speaker 12: (18:41)
And then-

Those are all outside of the universe that I’ve been reporting.

Speaker 12: (18:44)
And then the final are the 241 that you said you received by the middle-

That’s today, sir.

Speaker 12: (18:50)
… including-

Today through the mail. And that will-

Speaker 12: (18:52)
… included-

… continue to be received through next Tuesday.

Speaker 12: (18:54)
Are they included in 63,262?

No, sir. Those are outside of that.

Speaker 12: (18:58)
And thank you.

Speaker 13: (19:05)
Joe, I think most all of the confusion lays in why hasn’t that number gone down? What happened between not with the misreporting of the number, but why hasn’t the number of ballots that were counted gone down between yesterday and today?

If you’re referring to the 63,000-

Speaker 13: (19:24)
Correct.

… As we speak, they’re reading them into the system, some of those. So it is going down, it’s just not in this morning’s report. This morning’s report only goes up to the end of the day yesterday. And so they’re now processing those. We’ll have some numbers to report just before four o’clock on that 63,000. And we’ll continue to do so until we’re finished with all of those ballots.

Speaker 14: (19:49)
Joe, right here. So, and I’m staying on the math, sorry, I’m [inaudible 00:19:53] here. Staying on the math, so it’s 63,000 and then the additional 60,000 provisional ballots. Does that mean is it 123,000 or am I confusing that as well?

60,000 provisional ballots need to be reviewed. They won’t all be eligible to be cast, but yes, they still need to be reviewed, but I can’t tell you how many of those will be moved forward to count.

Speaker 15: (20:23)
The the GOP has asked the Department of Justice to investigate some of the… And I’m just wondering if you received the list of the voters names that they’re looking into? And what’s your-

I need you to be more specific with what list you’re referring to. Is it in the lawsuit that they recently provided or are there lists that I’m not aware of?

Speaker 15: (20:47)
Regarding the… They’re asking the Department of Justice to investigate.

I don’t know anything about that. I can’t answer that question.

Speaker 16: (20:56)
A deal was struck allowing more [inaudible 00:20:59] to come in. Can you go into detail about that deal?

I can’t hear you.

Speaker 16: (21:04)
There was a deal [inaudible 00:21:08] observers to [inaudible 00:21:11] have any information regarding that deal as part of that lawsuit from last week that was cleared.

I believe that we agreed to provide some more observer locations in our counting boards location.

Speaker 16: (21:23)
Okay.

But they’ve rescinded that. So I’ll have to talk to my civil DA.

Speaker 17: (21:35)
Okay. I’m sorry. I wasn’t a good math student. I’m trying to get a final tally, what we’re expecting. So there’s 63,000 provisional ballots that need to be reviewed, correct?

Correct.

Speaker 17: (21:46)
In addition to that, there’s another 60,000 ballots that aren’t provisional that need to be-

That are provisional but those won’t all be qualified to vote. They need to be reviewed.

Speaker 4: (21:56)
I understand it. But ballpark for me, what, so are we looking at 120,000 ballots need to be reviewed and/or audited and counted? Or is it 63,000 and change?

Let’s make sure and clarify that there’s two types of tally types that you’re referring to. Provisional is electronic. Those are voted on the in-person voting machines. The mail that I’m referring to is separate. That’s a different tally type. So that’s the 63,000. So there’s some electronic ballots that were voted provisionally that all need to be reviewed. They’re held in queue. So they won’t actually be counted until my staff correctly identifies whether they were eligible to be counted. So that’s separate. But there’s 60,000 plus the 63,000 that I’ve been referring to by mail.

Speaker 4: (22:40)
So there’s roughly, so just clarify for me. We’re looking at roughly 123,000 ballots that still have to be reviewed, audited and/or counted. Is that correct?

That’s what I’m reporting, but you need to keep in mind that we still have no ID voters that can show up.

Speaker 4: (22:55)

We still have queues that can still show up. And we also have U.S. mail.

Speaker 4: (22:59)
Okay.

So, I’d love to make it easier for you, but it’s a complicated process.

Speaker 4: (23:04)
No, I think we all appreciate-

What I’m trying to do is give you the numbers on the large.

Speaker 4: (23:07)
Sure.

That’s available.

Speaker 4: (23:07)
I think we all just need a ballpark to be able to accurately report. We don’t want to say 60,000 when it’s actually-

I think it’s fair to say that the 63,000 mail and the 60,000 provisional are the largest chunks left that we have to review.

Speaker 4: (23:19)
And again, not to misquote you or hope I didn’t misunderstand, but you anticipate having those completed counted by Sunday, is that what you said?

The mail.

Speaker 4: (23:29)
The mail.

So we’re hoping-

Speaker 4: (23:30)
And what’s that number, again?

… To have the mail done by Sunday, if all goes well.

Speaker 4: (23:33)
And that number again is what, I’m sorry? 60,000. 63,000?

63,000.

Speaker 4: (23:39)
Okay. So you’re anticipating 63 more thousand ballots being completed, counted by Sunday. And then there’s the other 60,000 that still have to be reviewed, which will go through next week.

You’ve got it.

Speaker 4: (23:49)
Thank you.

Next question.

Speaker 18: (23:54)
Can I change away from math for a moment? How’s your security? We’ve been reading-

Outstanding.

Speaker 18: (24:01)
… we’ve been reading about a situation in Philadelphia. Have there been any credible threats to your knowledge, to the voting count or your facilities in and around Las Vegas?

I really can’t release any of the reports on anything that would be credible. We keep that within our law enforcement group and they are dealing with it. I can tell you that they’re monitoring social media for any threatening type of messages. As you can see, when you came today, we have a relatively large force of law enforcement plus our County security that’s here in place. So I feel that the response has been excellent from the community, from the commissioners who call to make sure that we had that support.

But it’s just troubling for my employees. I have employees who are nervous leaving the building and rightfully so. They work late into the night. So we strongly encourage all of them not to leave by themselves. They can also request an escort from our security people or law enforcement. So we’re doing everything we can to protect our employees. And I think the response from local law enforcement and the assistance we received from our County commission has helped to make sure that that happens. So we’re doing the best we can.

Speaker 19: (25:19)
Folks, we have two more questions. [inaudible 00:25:24]

Speaker 20: (25:23)
How about yesterday that you, plus these numbers. So yesterday, we have 44,000 ID requiring ballots and 2,100 ballots in the queue to process. It the same number today?

You know what I was looking for you, can you do that again? I didn’t see you. I’m sorry. Just say it again.

Speaker 20: (25:44)
Yesterday we talking about 44,000 ID requiring ballots. And today and yesterday we have 2,100 ballots in the cure process. Is the same number today?

I would have to run that report for you. I did not come prepared with those numbers, but those were accurate yesterday.

Speaker 20: (26:03)
Today, we still have 44,000-

As I mentioned, outside of that universe of numbers, the male and the provisional, we still had the ID required. We still have the cures and we still have the U.S. mail that still has to come through. So yes, the answer to your question is those people are still eligible if they bring us an ID to have their ballot counted. One more question, where is it?

Speaker 21: (26:28)
Joe-

Speaker 19: (26:28)
Last question right here, Joe.

Speaker 21: (26:29)
Last question right here.

Speaker 22: (26:31)
Joe, can you talk about the settlement that came with the lawsuit going into last week? The reason behind it, and just anything moving forward?

I could briefly say that the Republicans had communicated to our legal team, that they were willing to drop their suit if we would provide some additional locations in an area that we were providing it as a courtesy. Again, I remind all of you, the only thing that is statutorily required for observers is we allow them to watch us count and tally votes, which is happening right behind us. Everything else that we’ve provided is provided as a courtesy. We’re not required by law to do so, but that’s what the settlement dealt with, but they’ve rescinded it. So I’ll have to talk to my civil DA to see where we’re at with that. Thank you all very much. We’ll see you tomorrow at 10 AM.

Speaker 23: (27:26)
Joe, can we have one more question please?

Speaker 24: (27:27)
Joe, the DOJ is alleging criminal voter fraud. Have you seen any evidence of-

Speaker 25: (27:36)
Okay, hold on one second.

Speaker 26: (28:00)
The mic I was [inaudible 00:28:00] today, I was way over-modulated.

Clark County, Nevada Press Conference Election Count Update Transcript November 6

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