Voter turnout high in Nevada, but half of eligible didn’t bother

More people voted for "none of these candidates" in three separate statewide judicial races than live in the entire city of North Las Vegas.

And while public officials touted astonishing voter turnout numbers that topped 80 percent in Nevada, the truth is that less than half of the state's adults bothered to vote.

Those are a couple of the nuggets hidden inside the vote totals reported by the secretary of state's office.

But wait! There's more!

The closest statewide race pitted two veteran politicians against one another, while the closest overall race in the state ended with a sheriff's deputy, being sued in federal court for harassment, becoming a judge.

Welcome to Nevada.

The "none" option, unique to Nevada and having survived a recent court challenge, proved incredibly popular this year.

In three Supreme Court races in which the candidate was running unopposed, "none" got more than 220,000 votes in each of them.

In the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Dean Heller, "none" got 44,907 votes. That is three times what none got in the last Senate race. It might have been a spoiler, too; Heller won by just 12,000 votes.

That's not so in the presidential race. Barack Obama won the state by 66,000 votes, while "none" got just 5,753.

Speaking of the presidential race, which is always credited for the high turnout, 1,688 people who voted in the election didn't bother to cast a ballot for any presidential candidate.

And while turnout was reported as 80.56 percent, that measures the portion of active, registered voters who bothered to show up.

But when you compare the number of people who voted with the number of all residents 18 and older in Nevada, it turns out that just 48.6 percent of them voted.

That number varied widely by county, ranging from a measly 34.3 percent in Pershing County to more than double that, a whopping 71.1 percent, in Storey County.

Clark County nearly mirrored the state number, 46.6 percent.

With all those people voting - more than 1 million for the first time ever - some races were bound to be close.

There were three Nevada Senate seats decided by fewer than 1,000 votes each. One of them, pitting Republican Greg Brower against Democrat Sheila Leslie after Leslie moved into a new district, was decided by just 266 votes. Brower won the seat, which covers part of the Reno metro area.

There were even closer races. A member of the Virgin Valley Water District in Mesquite held on by just 87 votes.

A justice of the peace in Searchlight topped his opponent by only 13 votes.

But neither of those races was as close as the one for justice of the peace in Jackpot, a little unincorporated town that is closer to Twin Falls, Idaho, than it is to any sizable place in Nevada.

There, Elko County sheriff's deputy Brad Hester was running against Monica Burt to replace retiring Judge Phyllis Black.

Hester is being sued by a local football coach who alleges that Hester and others within the Sheriff's Department have falsely accused him of using drugs.

Hester, who did not return phone and email messages Thursday, won the race against Burt, a local substitute school teacher, 89 votes to 79 votes.

Neither candidate raised a dime in contributions, according to expense reports filed with the secretary of state's office. But they both did spend a little. To win, Hester spent $203. To lose, Burt spent $944.23.

Looks like money doesn't buy elections, after all. It's right there in the numbers.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.