VOTERS REGISTER

The Democratic Party has turned in more than 20,000 voter registration forms to the Clark County Election Department, county Registrar Larry Lomax said Wednesday.

Democrats brought in 15,049 forms Tuesday and another 5,000 Wednesday, Lomax said. The new registrants were signed up at the Jan. 19 precinct caucuses, where Democrats, but not Republicans, allowed caucus-goers to register onsite.

The Democratic Party has said roughly 30,000 registrations were collected statewide at the caucuses, which smashed turnout expectations by drawing 117,600 participants. The registrations are being turned in to clerks and registrars in their counties.

The new registrants could be Republicans who switched parties or people not formerly registered to vote. But Lomax suspects many would be duplicates, registered Democrats who recently moved or weren't on their precinct's rolls for some other reason.

The forms, which are checked against Social Security and driver's license databases, won't be processed until late February, Lomax said. A temporary worker will be hired for two weeks to help with the data entry.

As of December, Clark County had 363,280 registered Democrats and 295,145 Republicans, according to the secretary of state's office.