A recent investigation has revealed that Clark County’s mail-in ballots from Nevada were sent to Runbeck Election Services in Maricopa County, Arizona, a move that has raised serious questions about election security and ballot integrity. According to congressional observers, Nevada ballots were reportedly stored with Arizona and other western state ballots in an unsecured warehouse without proper oversight.
The handoff caused delays in Clark County’s tabulation and potentially violated Nevada’s strict chain-of-custody laws. Under NRS Chapter 293 and related NAC regulations, each ballot transfer must be documented, including handlers, timestamps, locations, and tamper-evident seals.
Bipartisan monitoring and continuous accountability are required to prevent tampering, substitution, or unauthorized access. The outsourcing to a private vendor meant that Clark County officials, law enforcement, and independent observers were absent during critical processing stages.
A memo from House Administration Committee staffers described the Maricopa facility as a “Wild West” of ballot handling. Blank ballots from multiple states sat alongside completed ballots, some with torn packaging. Meanwhile, Nevada ballots were ignored in favor of Arizona ballots, delaying signature verification and tabulation in the days following Election Day.
Runbeck has a documented history of operational issues. In 2022, printer failures on Election Day in Maricopa County rejected thousands of ballots, and allegations of improper ballot handling fueled claims of fraud.
A court later dismissed the fraud claims. Meanwhile, promised oversight measures, including cameras, observer rooms, and live feeds, reportedly were not implemented.
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) highlighted these risks in a June 2025 letter to the U.S. Attorney General, citing the commingling of blank and voted ballots as a “significant risk to the accuracy and fairness of election results.”
The outsourcing arrangement coincides with Nevada Democrats’ pandemic-era expansions of mail-in voting, including universal mail ballots, relaxed postmark requirements, and non-family ballot harvesting. Critics argue that these changes prioritized voter access over security, creating conditions that left ballots vulnerable once sent out of state.
The California Globe has filed an open records request with Clark County Elections seeking contracts with Runbeck, the number of ballots processed, and detailed custody logs. The goal is to clarify how the county and Runbeck handled ballots, what specific services Runbeck was to perform, and whether all chain-of-custody procedures were properly maintained, particularly across state lines.
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