Silver State Times

Nearly 17,000 Nevada voters moved but still cast their November 2020 general election ballots from their old home addresses.

That’s according to an analysis of U.S. Postal Service “National Change of Address (NCOA)” data by the Silver State Times.

The Times compared the NCOA data to the State of Nevada’s public, official file of registered voters and found that, as of Feb. 3, 2021, there were still 30,229 individuals on Nevada voter rolls at their old addresses who told the post office they were moving prior to Nov. 3, 2020.

More than half of them-- 16,534-- voted in last year’s general election from their old address, according to the data.

Individuals fill out a U.S. Postal Service NCOA form when moving, indicating to where they want their mail forwarded and starting on what date.

Last month, a Voter Reference Foundation report identified 15 of 17 Nevada counties that certified more ballots cast than state records showed there were individual voters recorded as voting— a total of 8,952 excess ballots. 

Nevada Secretary of State Barbara K. Cegavske said that one reason for the discrepancy was that the state swiftly removes and deletes the voting history of those who died or “moved either out of state or to a different county (in Nevada).”

But U.S. Postal Service NCOA data indicates that Nevada election authorities often take several years to remove registered voters who move from the rolls.

The Silver State Times analysis found more than 30,000 registered voters still in the active file who filed out NCOA forms that they were moving before the Nov. 3, 2020 election-- including 10,692 who submitted them more than a year before the election. 

Of voters still registered at their old Nevada addresses, 1,670 moved in 2017, 2,937 in 2018 and 6,085 in 2019.

And 12,617 of them left the state of Nevada.

That includes 2,666 who moved to California, 1,023 to Texas, 942 to Arizona, 644 to Utah, 622 to Washington, 601 to Idaho, 610 to Florida, 431 to Colorado, 184 to Illinois and 180 to New York.

Of those who moved but voted, 71%, or 11,752, were in Clark County, home to 73% of the state’s population. 

Approximately 16% of voters who moved, or 2,636, were in Washoe, home to 15% of Nevadans.

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16.5 K Nevadans moved, but still voted at their old Nevada addresses
Where did they live?
	Moved but	Moved but
County	Registered	Registered/Voted	% voted	County Pop.	% of NV Pop.
Carson City	1,647	407	2.5%	54,773	1.8%
Churchill	234	220	1.3%	24,259	0.8%
Clark	16,123	11,752	71.1%	2,182,004	73.4%
Douglas	645	293	1.8%	48,132	1.6%
Elko	835	220	1.3%	52,297	1.8%
Eureka	10	7	0.0%	1,859	0.1%
Humboldt	89	82	0.5%	16,828	0.6%
Lander	106	36	0.2%	5,643	0.2%
Lincoln	6	2	0.0%	5,180	0.2%
Lyon	1,818	479	2.9%	54,380	1.8%
Mineral	9	3	0.0%	4,460	0.2%
Nye	998	307	1.9%	44,380	1.5%
Pershing	39	21	0.1%	6,615	0.2%
Storey	115	26	0.2%	3,988	0.1%
Washoe	7,509	2,636	15.9%	456,936	15.4%
White Pine	46	43	0.3%	9,679	0.3%
TOTAL	30,229	16,534	100%	2,971,413	100%
Sources: VoteRef.com; NV Secretary of State; U.S. Postal Service