Low vote, high costs taint GOP’s primary

Monday, March 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Nevada's first experiment with a mail-in election was an expensive, scandal-ridden flop, according to critics.

Among the problems were low turnout, ballot tampering and unexpected high costs.

About 70,000 of 153,000 ballots mailed to voters in the Republican primary election -- or 46 percent -- had been returned to the Clark County Election Department by late last week. That percentage is roughly the same in Washoe County.

The ballots will be counted Tuesday night.

Nevada Republican Party Executive Director Charles Muth had hoped the ease of mailing in a ballot would encourage at least 60 percent to respond.

Democrats, whose candidate, President Clinton, is virtually unchallenged, held caucuses rather than a mail-in primary.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Kathryn Ferguson, noting that Bob Dole had clinched the nomination by the time Nevada's primary rolled around, said the Republican Party "set the primary too late in the process to hold people's interest."

Other problems include a ballot-tampering scandal in Washoe County, where Registrar Brad Lawrence resigned this month after illegally opening 4,000 ballots in an effort to erase signatures that had bled through envelopes.

Also, U.S. Postal Service machines in Washoe County inadvertently opened 4,000 ballots, said Deputy Secretary of State Dale Erquiaga.

Taxpayers also could end up spending far more for Tuesday's election than the Legislature was led to believe.

In Clark County, about 18,000 ballots have been returned to Ferguson's office from residences where the voter had moved. That return trip cost taxypayers 89 cents per ballot.

In addition, more than 800 returned ballots were disqualified because they lacked the registered voter's signature.

Those problems will boost the cost of the mail-in process to more than the estimated $200,000 the election was supposed to cost taxpayers statewide, Ferguson said.

She said exact figures would not be available until after Tuesday's primary.

Even with these problems, proponents still support the process. Secretary of State Dean Heller, who had to take over in Washoe County after Lawrence's ouster, supports mail-in primaries because he says they attract more voters than the caucus system, which requires participants to show up at a voting place.

Republican voters wishing to participate still have time. Signed envelopes containing the ballots must be delivered to the Clark County Election Department, 500 S. Grand Central Parkway, by 7 p.m. Tuesday.