Study: Independents outpace Republicans in Clark County voter registration in third quarter

Friday, Oct. 28, 2011 | 10:44 a.m.

New GOP registrants not only couldn't match the major party opposition in Southern Nevada in the last quarter -- they finished third behind new nonpartisan voters.

That's according to an independent look by Applied Analysis, which found 40 percent of the new voters in heavily Democratic Clark County were Democrats, 26 percent were independents and 25.9 percent were Republicans. If there is a GOP voter registration program, it either hasn't kicked in yet or it is what it usually is here in Nevada: Nonexistent.

Nonpartisan registration continues to be the underlying story here, as independent registrations were 9.5 percent above their actual numbers while Democrats (5.5 percent) and Republicans (6.5 percent) were below their actual voter numbers in Clark County. Democrats still have a nearly 100,000-voter edge in the South (it's 65,000 statewide), but the independent share of total voters is creeping up on 17 percent.

Republicans need to sway a majority of independents in 2012 to make up their deficit -- and there are a lot more of them to persuade now.

Lots of good data in the study, which I have posted at right.