Donald Trump, a twice-impeached former president convicted of multiple felonies, has been declared the next President of the United States. 

And based on vote counts available early November 6, it’s possible he could have a Republican-controlled Congress. Republicans notched a majority in the Senate. As of press time, it was too early to call which party would have control in the House of Representatives.

It was also too early to call the race for Nevada’s U.S. Senator. Incumbent Jacky Rosen was down by about 870 votes in her race against Republican Sam Brown, according to official results as of Wednesday morning.

That race, as well as other down ballot races, could hinge on mail ballots left to be counted as well as whether more than 13,000 ballots that need curing statewide get cured. Ballots that were submitted without a signature or with a signature that didn’t match what the Election Department had on file need to be “cured,” a process by which the voter provides personal identifying information to their election department. If those ballots do not go through the cure process, they cannot be counted.

“We’ve still got [more than 13,000] ballots that need a signature cure, and apparently, that’s disproportionately impacting young people because we don’t teach cursive writing. My students literally do not have a signature the way we would recognize a signature,” says College of Southern Nevada political scientist Sondra Cosgrove.

Signature curing is initiated by a letter from the Election Department, as well as an email or a phone call from 702-455-8683. Voters should check their mail and email and be on the lookout for a call from that number, and make sure their mailing address, phone number and email address are updated in their voter registration by going to registertovote.nv.gov.

Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar also announced an online method of curing your ballot at cure.nv.gov, which provides a QR code for voters to scan and submit their information electronically without having to call the county. All signature curing must be completed by 5 p.m. on November 12.

“We’ve got a bunch of races that are a couple 100 votes in between the two top candidates. … The voter’s ballot includes all down ballot races, too. There’s legislative races and other races that are very, very close that their vote could really matter,” Cosgrove says.

She adds that less than 63% of eligible Nevada voters turned out this year, compared to 77% in 2020. Lack of turnout from Democrats could have contributed to Trump’s win.

UNLV associate professor of political science Dan Lee says Trump’s win wasn’t the result of either campaigns doing anything extraordinary to win or lose, but rather perceptions of the economy—the top issue among voters, according to exit polls.

“Harris tried to distance herself from Biden by campaigning on her promises for the future rather than the accomplishments that Biden’s administration had. … But at the end of the day, we have a sitting Democratic president. People perceive the economy not to be doing well, so they’re going to vote for a Republican. It’s kind of that simple,” Lee says.

League of Women Voters of Nevada president Barbara Wells says the nonpartisan nonprofit is bracing for counties to not certify election results, as Washoe County did in 2024 primary recounts. 

“We need to gird our loins, and be ready for whatever might develop from here on in. And of course, there are a number of down ballot elections still in progress here in Nevada. We want to be sure there is no refusal to certify those results. And this too is a threat to democracy on the local level, if that were to happen. [We want to be sure] that there are no irregularities that would prevent a free and fair election in our state,” Wells says.

Cosgrove says regardless of who is declared the winner in races, constituents will have to work with their elected officials in the coming years to advocate and fight for their interests.

“If somebody got elected you didn’t agree with, you still have to interact with them. They’re your representative. And it’s doubly important … that we have conversations about being civil to each other and not name calling. We need to make sure, if there’s something that needs to get done, like affordable child care, … they’re going to hear from me about that,” Cosgrove says.

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