Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Voters rush to register

10-day extension for Sept. 7 primary election concludes

Clark County Election Department officer Raynette Way helps Paul Arndt register to vote Tuesday afternoon, hours before the 9 p.m. deadline for the Sept. 7 primary election. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

There may be less than three weeks until the primary election, but voters registering on Tuesday's deadline for those races were focused on the race in November.

"I want to make sure my man wins," said Mike Tubbs, a Republican supporting President Bush, as he waited in line Tuesday afternoon to register at the Clark County Election Department.

Asked if there were any primary election races of note where he lives, the car rental manager said: "Beats me."

The Election Department was a flurry of activity Tuesday as a 10-day extension for voter registration for the Sept. 7 primary election ended.

"I thought it was the last day for president," said Kelli Kaiser, a middle school science teacher registering as a Democrat.

Kaiser, who has lived in Nevada for one year and who supports presidential challenger John Kerry, also couldn't name any of the primary election battles.

A line of 10 to 20 voters snaked outside the department from noon into the extended evening hours on the deadline day.

"All of this is for the general election," Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said, taking a break from handing out clipboards with registration forms to those in line.

The 10-day extended period is the result of a new state law designed to give voters more time to register before an election. The regular deadline for the primary ended Aug. 7 with a record 19,000 voters registering in Clark County the first week of August.

"In the last three weeks, there have been over 40,000 people registering," Lomax said.

The county will have close to 775,000 eligible voters for the primary election.

One older couple asked Lomax Tuesday where they could get information about the candidates beyond the name printed on the sample ballot. He directed them to the League of Women Voters.

The Review-Journal's primary voter guide will be published Thursday.

A two-week early voting period begins Saturday and runs through Sept. 3.

Carole and Glenn Elliott, who recently moved to Las Vegas from Southern California, registered to vote Tuesday.

"We're Republicans," Carole Elliott said. "Our vote means nothing in California, so maybe our vote will mean something here."

Thomas Lyle III, a Teamster who registered as a Democrat on Tuesday, said he was motivated "because of what Bush has done to working people. I'm very disappointed in him on every level."

Voter registration in Clark and Washoe counties has been on a record pace for the past month as a number of independent groups and party organizations work to register voters and turn them out in Nevada, which is among the battleground states in the presidential election.

After a two-year period of Republican dominance, registration data culled last week from county clerks shows Nevada is now in the Democratic column by 747 voters.

In Clark County, at least one Assembly district has seen a lead switch in party registration since the 2002 election. Assembly District 5, held by Republican Valerie Weber, has moved into the Democratic column. Assembly District 29, being vacated by Republican Josh Griffin, now has just 122 more Republicans than Democrats. The GOP once held a lead of about 900 voters.

In-person registration for the presidential election ends Oct. 12. Voters can register by mail or through a third party until Oct. 2.