Over 8,000 mail ballots rejected in Nevada's 2022 election, greater than Senate race victory margin

More than 8,000 mail ballots were rejected by officials in Nevada's 2022 midterm election, which is greater than the margin of victory in the U.S. Senate race that determined the upper chamber's majority.

Nevada automatically sends mail ballots to all active, registered voters, and in November, election officials rejected 8,036 mail ballots, according to a report released by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) on Thursday. The U.S. Senate race in Nevada was determined by 7,928 votes between Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) and GOP candidate Adam Laxalt, which ensured that the Democrats took control of the chamber.

A total of 95,556 ballots were sent to undeliverable or "bad" addresses, while 1.2 million ballots were never sent back to election officials to be counted, which account for more than 70% of mail ballots sent. Nearly 513,000 ballots were returned.

The report also estimated that about $2,270,000 was wasted by the state on postage for all the ballots that were undeliverable or not returned.

PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement, "Mass-mail elections disenfranchise. Nevada can do a better job in reducing rejected ballots. Auto mass-mail will continue to waste money and disenfranchise voters until it is fixed."