As early voting opens, some 6,000 Carson City residents have already voted

The Carson City Clerk/Recorder’s office has already received and accepted about 6,000 mail-in primary election ballots as the early voting period opens this weekend.

Clerk Recorder Aubrey Rowlatt said as of Friday midday, 5,965 ballots had been received and signature verified.

Another 241 ballots were identified as having some problem such as no signature on the envelope or a signature that doesn’t match the voter’s registration signature.

She said the office has tried to contact all those voters by letter, phone or email to cure whatever the problem is but that some voters are simply not responding.

If they can’t be contacted, their ballot won’t be counted.

“We have to verify you somehow,” she said.

Rowlatt said people are encouraged to mail their ballots in to her office using the pre-paid envelope the ballot came in.

For those wishing to deliver the ballot in person, she said they can do so but they will still be voting using their paper ballot since, unlike past elections, there won’t be any voting machines in the courthouse hallway.

“People are saying you can go to a polling location to vote but they’re not saying you still vote on a paper ballot,” she said.

Rowlatt said the office has mailed 34,750 ballots in the capital. That total is higher than the number of registered voters but includes re-issued ballots to some who reported their ballot was damaged or incorrectly marked.

Of those mailed out, she said the clerk’s office has gotten 3,912 ballots returned as undeliverable. She said those are primarily people who moved but didn’t update their voter registration.

Early voting runs from 10 a.m. Saturday, May 23 through Friday, June 5, at 6 p.m.

The office on the ground floor of the courthouse will be closed Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day) as well as the following Sunday.

During the week, office hours are 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

She said people also need to know that the presidential race isn’t on the primary ballot because there is no primary contest for that office.