Saturday, October 30, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EARLY VOTE HEAVY: Poll watchers get eyeful

Head start on voting causes few problems, but registrar braces for Election Day complaints

Election worker Jackie Matthes, left, helps a long line of people waiting to vote Friday at the Vons supermarket at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Craig Road. A record number of Clark County residents took advantage of early voting, which ended Friday. Photo by John Locher.

As a steady stream of voters filed into the Regional Transportation Commission building on Friday, the last day of early voting, three poll watchers gripping clipboards sat in a roped off area.

Few notes were scribbled as they observed dozens of voters filtering through the room.

Despite a contentious presidential race that has led to legal battles and accusations that each political party is trying to steal the election, polling sites have been peaceful.

"It's going really smoothly, and we think Election Day will be the same," said Chris Carr, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax isn't as optimistic. Manning 16 early voting sites with experienced staff members is not nearly as challenging as staffing 329 polling places, sometimes using temporary employees.

"Election Day is a whole new ballgame," Lomax said.

A Las Vegas police sergeant has been assigned to the election division's office, where hot line operators will field reports of polling place troubles.

It's the first time the county has ever had police standing by in case officers must be dispatched to voting sites.

"It's never been an issue before," Lomax said. "We've never had poll watchers before. We've never had any of this stuff before."

Democrats and Republicans have commissioned about 200 poll watchers to keep an eye out Tuesday for unlawful behavior such as electioneering within 100 feet from the polls.

Lomax warned that challenges to voters must be lodged as the voter is signing the roster book inside the polling place.

"The only time challenges can occur is at the polling tables," Lomax said. "A team leader will be called over to settle the dispute. I don't know what happens outside that 100-foot line, and it really doesn't matter because it's meaningless."

The most common challenges stem from questions about a person's identification or residency. The person often is asked to sign an affidavit confirming residency. If identification is challenged, the person's identification must be verified by someone 18 or older with a valid ID.

Voters whose residency is challenged can sign an affidavit saying they are being truthful about their place of residency.

Voters who moved but never updated their information with the county must vote in the precinct where they were last registered.

Challenges can be made by anyone registered to vote in the same precinct as the voter in question.

The Democratic Party, which produced an Election Day manual warning its members of tactics it says Republican operatives have used in attempts to taint elections, plans to have 200 attorneys visiting various polling places throughout the state Tuesday.

The Democrats' manual said neighborhoods with a large number of minorities often are targeted by Republicans attempting to intimidate voters.

Jon Summers, spokesman for the state Democratic Party, said Republican poll watchers plan to approach Democratic voters and challenge their right to vote as lines form outside voting booths.

A Republican activist told students about the plan in a law school class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he said.

"If voters are challenged at the sites, we'll have attorneys there to protect their right to vote," Summers said.

Because Democrats plan to place attorneys at polling locations, the Republican Party also opted to bring in attorneys for the election.

Carr said the attorneys will remain at the Republican headquarters and will be available if any questions or conflicts arise at the polls.

"With hundreds of attorneys coming in on their side, it's the responsible thing to do to have the resources in case anything arises on Election Day," Carr said.

Poll monitors, who are assigned to locations to watch for irregularities, are not uncommon during some elections. But both parties acknowledged that more poll watchers, many from out of state, will be at polls Tuesday because Nevada is considered a battleground state in the hotly contested presidential race.

"We're basically watching for any irregularities and making sure if they're spotted, they're taken care of right away," Summers said. "We want a good, clean, smooth-running election."

Secretary of State Dean Heller issued his own warning this week.

"I want to make it clear to anyone who believes otherwise that I will prosecute to the full extent of the law anyone engaging in any activity that makes a voter at any polling place in this state feel intimidated, harassed, coerced or influenced," Heller said.

"Such illegal activity will not be tolerated, no matter who the culprit may be."

Heller said the warning applies to attorneys working for either major political party as well as media representatives who might seek to perform exit-polling in an effort to determine the outcome of a race.

The election season shenanigans have already been challenged in courts.

Democrats lost a bid to re-open voter registration after a former employee for the Republican-backed Voters Outreach of America claimed he witnessed his supervisor tear up Democratic registration forms. The court ruled that voters who believe they registered, but do not appear on the rolls at their precinct, are permitted to vote provisionally under state law.

That could lead to additional legal battles.

Provisional votes are counted if election results are close and only apply to federal races. Because the law provides no recourse for local candidates, tight local races could result in more lawsuits.

"I guess you could go to court," Lomax said. "But our legislators made that (law) clear, and I don't think a judge can overturn what the legislators have done."

Record numbers of residents took advantage of early voting this election. The election division reported that 236,120 people voted through Thursday; 104,875 were registered as Democrats, 94,688 were Republicans and 36,557 were non-partisan or with minor parties.

On Friday, the last day of early voting, 20,368 residents had voted by 5 p.m. The county was unable to provide a party breakdown for those voters. So far, about 150 voters have voted provisionally.

The line Friday afternoon at one early voting site, the Vons supermarket at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Craig Road, snaked from the deli section in front of the store, down to the back of the store and past the frozen Van De Kamps fish sticks in the meat and poultry section.

It was like that all day, said Marge Biesiada, leader of Mobile Team 7 with the Clark County Election Department.

"It's been crowded," she said as a woman with a stroller tried to navigate her way through the line. "But everybody's been pleasant."

Biesiada said 2,000 people voted at the site on Thursday, and "it'll be way over that today."

She said there had been no problems with the new voting machines. "My technicians are here and everything's working fine," she said.

Review-Journal writer Richard Lake contributed to this report.