Democrats lead Republicans in preliminary tally as early voting ends

CARSON CITY -- About 6,600 more Democrats than Republicans turned out to cast ballots in the two weeks of early voting in Nevada, according to preliminary numbers released Saturday.

But since there are 60,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Nevada, the figures mean GOP voters may have been more eager to vote early than the Democrats.

In the two weeks of early voting that ended Friday night, 379,589 Nevadans cast ballots. Of them, 42.9 percent, or 162,774, were Democrats, while 41.1 percent, or 156,150, were Republicans. Sixteen percent, or 60,665 of the early voters, were nonpartisan or members of minor parties.

But of the state's 1,119,576 active registered voters, just 36.7 percent are registered Republicans, while 42 percent are Democrats and 21.3 percent are nonpartisan or belong to other parties.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said he expects 60 to 65 percent of active registered voters will cast ballots in the election. That would mean about 700,000 total votes, an indication that more than half of all ballots may have already been cast.

"People are turning out in significant numbers," Miller said. "It remains to be seen which party gets the highest percentage."

The early vote is more than 135,000 higher than the last nonpresidential election in 2006, when 244,121 people voted early.

Miller cautioned that the early vote numbers he released Saturday are preliminary and do not include early votes from Eureka County, which has just 1,037 total registered voters.

As expected, Clark County led all counties in the number of early voters.

In all, 258,327 Clark County residents cast votes early. Of them, 119,371 were Democrats, 96,541 Republicans and 42,415 nonpartisan or other parties.

In Washoe County, 69,211 people voted early. Of them, 30,946 were Republicans, 23,770 Democrats and 14,495 other parties or nonpartisan.

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel
@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.