What to Expect on Election Day: A Voter Guide

With just a month until the Nevada General Election, a detailed and meticulous election process will soon begin. Election administration is complicated — it can be difficult for Nevadans to sift through hundreds of pages of Nevada Revised Statutes and Nevada Administrative Code to decipher the process and become informed voters. The Guinn Center did this work for you, and we compiled it in our new Voter Registration FAQ.

“Nevada's voter system has a lot of safeguards built in, and there's a lot of guidance that's set forth in these FAQs that I think would help the voters really feel comfortable and reassured about our process here in Nevada,” says Michael Stewart, Guinn Center’s Research Director, who co-authored the FAQ.

Prior to Election Day on November 3, most voters will receive a mail ballot from their county between October 5 and 12. Early voting begins October 17 and ends October 30. Nevadans can register to vote at any time throughout the process, leading up to same-day registration on Election Day.

“What the voters experienced in 2024 is going to be similar in 2026,” says Stewart. “When a voter comes into the polls, usually it's a pretty simple process. The voter will arrive at the election or at the polls on election day, and an election worker will use a Poll Pad device to check in the voter.”

Poll Pads were implemented in 2024 as part of VREMS, the Voter Registration Election Management System. VREMS streamlines Nevada’s voter registration by replacing outdated processes and integrating voter registration and election data in a single platform.

“VREMS was implemented to replace what was once what we call a bottom-up voter registration system, whereby counties would manage in a decentralized fashion their voter registration systems,” explains Stewart. “The VREMS platform was developed to then make Nevada more of a top-down system where voters register to vote on a statewide form, and their voter data is then centralized statewide through this voter registration election management system.”  

Poll Pads provide instantaneous voter check-in, increasing efficiency while maintaining election integrity by flagging the system to ensure a voter can’t vote more than once. Poll Pads also assist election workers with voter registration list maintenance, including signature matching and address updates. Once the voter completes check-in at the Poll Pad, the poll worker activates an election card for the voter to cast their ballot using the electronic voting machine.

“From the voters' experience, what they're going to see this time is something different when they're at the polls voting in person. You might recall that the voters used to see what we call the VVPAT, a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail, that sat on the side of the electronic voting machine,” says Stewart. “The state is no longer using those…That was technology that hasn't changed much since it was first introduced in 2005 or 2006. Some of those VVPATs were prone to jamming and stuff like that as they got older and older.”

To replace the VVPAT, the voter’s ballot will be physically printed, placed in a secrecy sleeve, and brought to the scanning device where the vote will be counted.

“Voters were really wanting to have something tangible that they could hold and look at at the polls after they voted, and even though they can't take that ballot with them because that's the one that's counted, they can hold it for a moment to take a look at their selections and then feed it themselves into the scanner,” Stewart explains. “I think that really gives voters a little bit more comfort when they're voting at the polls.”

In addition to VREMs, Nevada law places safeguards to protect the security and integrity of each voter’svote. At the voter registration level, state law calls for extensive electronic testing of voter registration equipment, bipartisan election boards, and electronic signature scanning to ensure accurate signatures.

“The poll workers are trained on securing voter equipment, securing election equipment, accounting for ballots, and making sure that there's a proper chain of custody along the way,” explains Stewart.

The more well-informed Nevadans are about these processes, the more equipped and prepared they can be to participate in their civic duty of voting, regardless of party lines.  

“No matter what happens, your vote is important,” says Stewart. "Participating in the process is critical. And the more people who can be involved in the election process, no matter how they vote, no matter what party they're registered for, is really, really important.”

Read our voter FAQ here.

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