WASHINGTON (AP) — Nevada voters will elect leaders for federal, state and other offices on Tuesday. Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:
Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 10 p.m. ET, but state law requires polls to stay open until all voters in line by poll closing time have cast their ballots.
The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in races for governor, U.S. House, mayor of Henderson, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, statewide ballot measures, state Supreme Court, state Senate, state Assembly, controller and state treasurer.
About 1 million votes were cast in the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.
About 80% of all ballots cast in Nevada’s 2022 election for U.S. Senate were cast early or by absentee ballot.
The latest advance vote totals for Nevada can be found in the AP’s advance vote tracker.
Every Nevada county is expected to release at least some early in-person or mail voting results at the start of the night. About half of the counties are expected to release all or almost all mail voting results. Nearly every county is expected to release all or almost all in-person early voting results in the first update. About half of counties are not expected to release any in-person Election Day results in the first update.
In both Clark and Washoe counties, the first vote update of the night tends to include all early in-person voting results and partial mail voting results, before any in-person Election Day results are released.
The first results of the 2024 general election were reported starting at 12:54 a.m. ET on Nov. 6, about three hours after polls closed. The state reached 50% of votes reporting less than 10 minutes later, at 1:02 a.m. ET, and 90% of votes reporting at 8:26 p.m. ET later that day.
The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Recounts in Nevada are not automatic, but a candidate may request and pay for one regardless of the vote margin. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford, attorney general of Nevada, arrives to speak at the Culinary Workers Union headquarters Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo speaks at a campaign rally Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo meets with Steven Martin, right, and Sandra Martin, left, at their home in Las Vegas, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Alaska confirmed on Friday the existence of a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent.
The investigation has been ongoing for several months, but revelations this week from The New York Times that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting
Dan J. Sullivan have resulted in a “significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska,” U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters.
“When credible information comes out, we are committed to pursuing that information to deceive voters and we will act on it. We are acting on it intensely and swiftly,” Heyman said.
The department also confirmed in court documents that they seek to isolate ballots ranking Dan J. Sullivan to probe “confusion” with the GOP incumbent senator.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Wilson in Alaska, in a filing Friday, said the government “seeks to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary.”
The Department of Justice also filed with the court a list of proposed questions it seeks to compel the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to answer about their reported role in recruiting the challenger Dan. J. Sullivan. The civil litigation is playing out in parallel to the criminal probe confirmed by Heyman Friday.
This comes as part of the ongoing litigation filed by the Department of Justice last week, seeking to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if the incumbent, Republican Dan Sullivan, loses
The request to segregate the ballots in Alaska comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department’s request for California to set aside disputed ballots received in the midterm election sent to some 20,000 people the administration contends may not be U.S. citizens. California officials argued the list is highly unreliable and most likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.
Justice Department attorneys said there is a “substantial risk” that the candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan “will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity.”
“To guard against this danger, the United States seeks an order directing Defendants to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary,” the filing states. “These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration.”
Attorneys for the state have argued that Alaska elections officials already took steps to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot and argued the state’s ranked voting system further addresses concerns about potential confusion.
Heyman would not say what potential crimes authorities are looking into or the targets of the probe, but encouraged the public to come forward with tips that could help investigators.
It’s highly unusual for Justice Department officials to publicly discuss a criminal investigation or even confirm its existence. And the timing of the press conference is particularly notable given that the Justice Department has had a longstanding practice of avoiding taking public steps in the weeks leading up to an election that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome.
Peltola denied Thursday that she knew anything about the effort to put Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot, where Peltola is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“I just want to clear the air,” she said at a campaign rally at a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”
Federal prosecutors this week issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas and requests to preserve records, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.
The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber.
Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
State attorneys have asked a court to rule on the Justice Department’s lawsuit by Monday, saying the case could “cast a cloud over Alaska’s election that is contrary to the public interest.”
Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper’s reporting “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”
“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the state’s elections board into the matter.
Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens,” the president told reporters on his way to a rally in South Carolina. “It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Michael J. Heyman holds a news conference on a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, at the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Michael J. Heyman holds a news conference on a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, at the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
FILE - This combination photo shows Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, left, in Palmer, Alaska, Aug. 17, 2026, and a candidate in Alaska's Senate race, Dan Sullivan, right, in Petersburg, Alaska, July 3, 2026. (AP Photos/Mark Thiessen/Becky Bohrer, File)
Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola speaks during a campaign event Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Chloe Anderson)
A sample election ballot is displayed in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
