Washoe County flips from red to blue

The political balance in Washoe County has tipped to the Democrats, according to the latest voter registration figures on file with the Nevada secretary of state's office.

As of Monday afternoon, there were 764 more Democrats than Republicans registered to vote in the county that is home to Reno and its surrounding area, which for years had been a Republican stronghold.

Just last week, Republicans had a 105-voter advantage after months of steadily losing ground to the Democrats.

By contrast, when registration closed for the 2006 election, there were 16,500 more Republicans than Democrats in the county.

The current numbers -- 91,119 Democrats versus 90,355 Republicans -- mean Democrats are 39.8 percent of Washoe County active registered voters, while Republicans are 39.4 percent of the electorate.

The other approximately 20 percent are nonpartisan or members of a third party.

Democrats touted the county's flip from red to blue Monday. "It is remarkable that in two short years, a significant Republican voter registration advantage in Washoe County has been wiped out," Sam Lieberman, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a prepared statement.

"It's clear that voters in Washoe County and across Nevada are ready for change," he added.

Zac Moyle, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the GOP was "obviously disappointed" with the numbers, but the election will hinge on who votes.

"We know that Washoe County is where the election is going to be won or lost, that's the bottom line," he said. "We expect to win because of our turnout efforts and because independents and conservative Democrats will vote for (Republican presidential nominee) John McCain."

Statewide, Democrats had 97,264 more active registered voters than Republicans, according to the latest numbers. In the 2004 presidential election, there were 5,000 more Republicans than Democrats registered, and President Bush carried the state by 20,000 votes.

Authorities don't believe the Democratic advantage stems from the allegations of voter registration fraud perpetrated by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. The group paid canvassers to register voters in predominantly Democratic areas, but officials believe few if any false registrations made it onto the voter rolls because of checks in the system.

ACORN currently is being investigated by state and federal authorities for the registration fraud, which allegedly included signing up members of the Dallas Cowboys football team to vote in Nevada. The group says it was the victim of dishonest canvassers that it tried to have prosecuted to no avail.

Voter registration for the Nov. 4 election ends today. Final statewide voter registration tallies are expected later in the week.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.