2020 Election results update

Voting in the 2020 general election came to an official close on Tuesday, Nov. 3 but ballots are still in the process of being counted and the outcomes for several races were still considered too close to call as of the morning of Thursday, Nov. 5.

This included the race for president of the United States, in which former vice president Joe Biden was holding a less than 1% lead over President Donald Trump in the state of Nevada.

The race for U.S. Congressional District 4 was also too close for a definitive winner to be declared, with Democratic nominee Steven Horsford, the incumbent, showing 49.81% of the vote to Republican challenger Jim Marchant’s 47.11%.

While there may have been a variety of extremely tight races throughout the state, for the those appearing on the Nye County ballot, the results were generally much clearer as of the update provided by the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office and county clerks yesterday morning.

It appears safe to say that Nye County Commissioner Donna Cox, a Republican, has won her re-election bid, leading Independent American Party challenger Lance Roy Schaus by a fairly wide margin of 70.57% to 29.43% as of Thursday. Cox will begin her third and final four-year term as the representative for Nye County Commission District 3 this coming January.

For the Nevada State Senate District 19 race, incumbent Republican Pete Goicoechea, too, was firmly in the lead as of Thursday, showing 79.09% of the vote to Independent American Party opponent Tiffany “Gholson” Seeback’s 20.91%

Republican Nevada Assemblywoman Alexis Hansen can be declared the winner in the Assembly District 32 contest, holding 73.61% to Democratic opponent Paula Povilaitis’ 26.39%. The Nevada Assembly is a two-year term.

Both Nye County School District Board of Trustees races looked to have a clear winner as of Thursday as well, with incumbent Mark Hansen taking 68.77% of the vote and beating out Liese Peterson for the Area VI seat while incumbent Larry Small had a reported 60.88% of the vote, giving him a win over Marjorie Ann Schaus in the Area IV race. Nye County School Board is a nonpartisan office with a four-year term.

In the nonpartisan race for Pahrump Justice of the Peace Dept. B, which is a six-year term, incumbent Kent Jasperson also appeared to be the obvious winner, holding 64.07% of the vote compared to opponent Walt Grudzinski’s 35.93% as of Thursday.

In the race for Amargosa Town Board, a four-year term, there were five candidates on the ballot and three seats up for grabs. The top three vote-getters in the 2020 general election as of Thursday were Deborah “Morgan” Scriven, Esperanza “Hope” Budd and Debbera Mendyk. However, when reached for an interview regarding her candidacy during the primary election, Budd told the Pahrump Valley Times that she had moved out of Amargosa and in the event that she was one of the three winners, she would not be able to take the seat. Now, the decision as to who will hold that post will be made by appointment by the Nye County Commission.

In the nonpartisan races for Nevada Court of Appeals Judge Department 3 and Nevada Supreme Court Justice Seat D, the margins were not quite as wide but unless a dramatic shift occurs, the outcomes seem fairly certain. For Court of Appeals, Bonnie Bulla was showing 42.63% of the vote to Susan Bush’s 35.66% while in the race for Supreme Court Seat D, Douglas Herndon was leading Ozzie Fumo by 46.53% to 35.90%.

As for the State Board of Education District 4 race, this was yet another that was too close to call as of Thursday. Results at that time showed Rene Cantu narrowly leading with 51.03% to incumbent Mark Newburn’s 48.97%.

On the ballot unopposed

There were several candidates that appeared on the 2020 general election ballot in Nye County with no opponent, due to a variety of reasons.

For the Nye County Treasurer’s position, appointed treasurer John Prudhont, a Republican, was the only candidate to register to run in that race and as a result, he was on the general election ballot unopposed. He will hold the treasurer’s post for the next four years.

Similarly, both Fifth Judicial District Court Judges Kimberly Wanker and Robert Lane had no challengers come forward for the 2020 election and they too were on the November ballot with no opponents listed. The district court judge post is a nonpartisan six-year term.

Supreme Court Justice Kristina Pickering has also held on to her seat and she too appeared on the ballot without an opponent. This was due to the 2020 primary in which Pickering managed to take over 50 percent of the vote, resulting in an automatic win for her. Supreme Court Justice is another nonpartisan six-year term.

In the 2020 Republican primary for the Nye County Commission District 2 seat, candidate Frank Carbone was able to pull out a win over incumbent John Koenig. As these two were the only candidates to file for district 2, Carbone was declared the winner and his name was only on the general election ballot as a matter of form.

The same situation occurred for the Nevada Assembly District 36 seat, which also saw a two-candidate Republican primary that ultimately determined the winner of the office. Appointed Assemblyman Greg Hafen II beat out challenger Dr. Joe Bradley and will keep the Assembly District 36 position for the next two-year term.

In the case of the race for Nye County Commission District 1, the 2020 Republican primary resulted in the nomination of Richard “Dick” Gardner, who was originally scheduled to head to the general election for a battle with nonpartisan candidate Darryl Lackey.

However, Lackey was unable to secure the number of signatures required to get himself placed on the general election ballot and therefore, Gardner had been declared commissioner-elect for district 1.

Just days before the election, though, Gardner passed away, leaving a vacancy that will now be filled by appointment. The responsibility for making that appointment lies with Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak and applications for the appointment should be made available to interested parties in the near future.

Ballot curing process

With ballots being sent out by mail to every active registered voter in Nevada this general election, ballot curing could play a role in altering the outcome of some races.

For mail-in ballots, county clerk election teams are required to verify the signatures on said ballots before counting them and entering them into the system.

For those that are missing signatures or have signatures that do not match the signature on file, voters are contacted and given the opportunity to “cure” their ballot by providing proof of identification and signing an affidavit stating that ballot is indeed theirs.

Voters with concerns can either track the status of their ballot using the newly established BallotTrax service by visiting www.nevada.ballottrax.net or contact their county clerk to learn whether their ballot was counted and if they need to take any action to “cure” their ballot.

Signature curing can be completed until 5 p.m. on Nov. 12.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com