Voters will have more options for casting their ballots by June 2018 primary

Local voters should be able to cast a valid ballot at any polling location inside Clark County, not just their local precincts, by the primary election in June 2018.

The County Commission voted Tuesday to spend about $1.57 million to expand the same electronic poll book technology it uses for early voting to all polling places on Election Day.

The money will be used to purchases software and hardware from San Diego-based Votec Corporation, the company providing the county’s current early voting election software. The county currently has 200 licenses to use the software, but it will soon have 1,300.

“All we’re doing is expanding what we already have in place so we can use it on Election Day,” County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said.

Currently, in an even-numbered year, if voters show up at a voting place other than their assigned one on election day they can cast a provisional ballot. But if the polling place is outside their congressional district, their votes won’t count, Gloria said.

That will no longer be a problem under the new system. Voter history also will be kept in a real time database, so there’s no chance a voter could cast a ballot in more than one polling place.

“This will provide more access to voters and more tools for us to uphold the integrity of the process,” Gloria said.

The cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas rolled out a similar concept during Tuesday’s primary municipal election. Voters can cast their ballot at any “voting center” location in the city in which they live, instead of an assigned precinct polling place.

Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.