Nevada and the Move Away from Election Day

As Nevada tallies its final votes in the 2024 election, the state delivers further evidence that all-mail elections make voting easier and more inclusive. It also serves as a microcosm of the evolution of U.S. election processes as a whole. Americans increasingly vote early by mail or in person, and Nevadans—who have rapidly shifted toward these voting practices—exemplify this change.

A major shift in Nevadans’ voting habits began in the 2020 election when, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state legislature passed an emergency measure providing for universal mail-in voting. These changes were enshrined in 2021 via Assembly Bill 321, which codified a system in which all registered voters receive a postal ballot. At the same time, while early in-person voting has been an option since 1996, its popularity has increased in recent years.

Also increasing in popularity, mail-in voting has become controversial—especially after the 2020 election, when several unsubstantiated allegations tied the practice to fraud. This year, the Republican Party and the Trump campaign launched a failed lawsuit to restrict the counting of mail-in ballots. While scholars generally acknowledge that the private nature of voting by mail increases the opportunity for voter coercion and low-level fraud, evidence of such activity remains rare.

Regardless of concerns, mail-in balloting and early in-person voting appear to be driving turnout among voters nationwide, and Nevada is no exception. With approximately 99 percent of the vote counted in Nevada, just over 64 percent of eligible voters have cast a ballot. This puts the Silver State slightly above the current national average of 63.5 percent.

The state narrowly surpassed its record turnout rate from 2020, when the emergency measure was put in place. Both of these all-mail elections constitute a significant improvement over previous presidential-year elections: In each presidential election from 2004 to 2016, Nevada’s turnout rate among eligible voters varied between 55 and 58 percent.

However, the impact of mail-in and early in-person voting on midterm election turnout is far less conclusive. Turnout during the 2022 midterm elections (46 percent) did not increase compared to the 2018 election (47 percent), though it did remain significantly higher than in 2014 (30 percent) and 2010 (41 percent).

Besides increasing overall turnout, mail-in ballots and early in-person voting have caused a significant shift in preferred voting methods. In 2002—the first year with readily available data—59 percent of Nevada voters cast their ballots on Election Day. In 2024, only 18 percent did so. During the pandemic, approximately 48 percent of voters used a mail-in ballot. And although emergency conditions no longer apply, just over half of 2022 midterm voters (51 percent) still chose to vote by mail, while 45 percent of voters did so this year.

Nevadans also frequently choose to vote early in person. The percentage of voters using early voting rose from 33 percent in 2002 to a peak of 62 percent in 2016 before falling to 38 percent in 2024 as mail became the preferred choice. This puts Nevada in line with the rest of the country, where voting outside Election Day continues to gain popularity.

All-mail elections remain a largely Western innovation—the states of California, Colorado, Hawai‛i, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington all use this voting method. However, evidence (including Nevada’s recent experiences) suggests that this approach has potential not only to increase voter turnout, but also to make the voting process easier for those who already participate. Given the origins of universal male suffrage, citizen initiatives, and female suffrage, this would hardly be the first time in U.S. history that the West served as the birthplace of democratic innovation.