In a close election in Nevada, it could take days to know who won the state, not just because of potential legal challenges and recounts but because of thousands of young voters failing to sign their ballot correctly.

Election officials in the Silver State say there are around 13,000 ballots with defects that still need to be “cured” — or fixed. Voters whose ballots have issues with a signature will be contacted and given a chance to verify their identity. The deadline for voters to resolve those issues is November 12.

The Nevada secretary of state, Francisco Aguilar, said part of the reason for the higher rate of ballots being set aside to be cured is due to young voters who do not know how to sign their name.

“This is an opportunity, probably their first time they’ve had to really use an official signature,” Mr. Aguilar told CNN.  “And what’s on their driver’s license, what’s on their voter registration form, and what’s on their ballot is a little bit different.”

He explained many young voters’ signatures did not match what was on their driver’s licenses. 

“It’s mostly the fact that young people don’t have signatures these days. And when they did register to vote through the automatic voter registration process, they signed a digital pad at DMV, and that became their license signatures,” he told the New York Times. 

Polls show a razor-thin race for president in Nevada. RealClearPolitics’ average of polls finds President Trump has a 0.6-percentage point lead over Vice President Harris. 

In an election that could be decided by a few thousand votes, those outstanding ballots waiting to be cured or not could make a difference in who wins the state. And with a deadline of a week after Election Day to resolve those issues, it could take days to know who won.