Living in cities a must for municipal voting

Don't assume that you can vote in today's city of Las Vegas elections just because the mail you receive says you live in Las Vegas.

The invisible boundaries that separate cities from unincorporated Clark County could be causing some confusion as voters take to the polls today, officials said. Elections are being held throughout Las Vegas, Henderson, Mesquite and Boulder City. In North Las Vegas, those living in Ward 4 can participate.

Here are some hints, courtesy of Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar of voters:

Did you receive a sample ballot in the mail?

"That's a sure indication someone lives in one of those locations where an election is taking place, and where the polling place is," Lomax said.

If you didn't get one, that doesn't automatically mean you don't live where an election is taking place. If you have moved, the sample ballots are not forwarded to your new address. Or the sample ballot could have been lost in the mail.

The city of Las Vegas, which has 545,000 people in it is actually just a small part of the larger county, and if Clark County were a city, it would be the largest in the state.

Turnout for the municipal elections is expected to be extremely low.

In one of the citywide races, Mayor Oscar Goodman is running against largely unknown candidates who have not been able to raise money. The only question in that race is by how much will he win by, pundits say. The municipal court position that is also citywide is considered obscure.

Early voting, which ended on Saturday, saw about 5.8 percent of registered voters go to the polls in Las Vegas and Henderson, Lomax said.

To see what a competitive mayor's race could do, in Mesquite 40 percent of voters had already voted. Boulder City has 20 percent.

A general rule of thumb in municipal elections says that about 10 percent of the votes cast will come from mail-in their ballots, and about 50 percent will be cast on election day.

Craig Walton, president of the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, said the low turnout in municipal elections could be blamed on the newness of many residents, the media and a general lack of understanding about civics.

"What we need is a kind of civics foundation of where people live," Walton said. "We have a lot of new residents, and nothing is being done to communicate this civics information."