Clark County rebuts GOP accusation that early voting site was open late Friday
Clark County officials pushed back Sunday after Donald Trump’s campaign manager and the Nevada Republican Party chairman suggested polls were inappropriately kept open late in a Las Vegas Democratic stronghold on the last day of early voting.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kellyanne Conway said that “there isn’t a problem” if polls stayed open simply to accommodate voters already in line.
“But we don’t know that that’s true,” Conway said. “And we’ll all take a look at Tuesday as well.”
On Friday, Clark County logged record-setting turnout. Democrats notched a six percentage point turnout lead statewide in two weeks of early voting. Nevada is critical to Trump’s chances of assembling an Electoral College majority.
Conway said she hoped election officials would follow similar practices to Las Vegas in locations where there is strong turnout for the Republican presidential nominee. She predicted “really long lines, serpentine-like lines, on Tuesday of folks there for Donald Trump.”
Conway’s comments followed similar concerns Saturday from Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald.
“Last night in Clark County they kept a poll open till 10 o’clock at night so a certain group could vote,” McDonald said at a Trump rally in Reno. “The polls are supposed to close at 7 p.m. This was kept open till 10 p.m. Yeah, you feel free right now? You think this is a free and easy election?”
McDonald appeared to be referring to an early voting site at Cardenas supermarket in the heavily Hispanic east Las Vegas neighborhood, which processed voters for about two hours after its posted closing time. Pictures of voter crowds there got attention on social media.
Trump also mentioned the late closures, saying they were evidence of a rigged system.
Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said Saturday that closing time wasn’t formally extended at the east Las Vegas site, but he added that voting sites stay open to accommodate all voters in line. He said all or almost all polling places in the Las Vegas Valley did so Friday.
The last early ballot in Clark County was cast at 10:10 p.m. Friday at the Silverado Ranch Plaza, a suburban shopping center.
“If there’s a line when closing time comes, we just keep processing voters until there’s no more line,” Kulin said. “We’re flexible because we want people to vote.”
Nevada Republican Party officials and Trump’s campaign didn’t say whether they would pursue a formal complaint over early voting site closing times.
Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta called the Republican claims “ridiculous.”
Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
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