Early vote projection: 43 percent

Scott Reeder

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

A projected 43 percent of the Clark County votes in this year's election will have been cast early.

As soon as the polls close at 7 p.m. today, Clark County will release all of the results of all of the early votes cast, said Kathryn Ferguson, Clark County registrar of voters.

"I think early voting has proven to be a very good thing," she said. "It has proven to be a good way of encouraging people to vote."

As of Monday morning, 119,186 people had voted early, Ferguson said.

Ferguson said she is basing her 43 percent projection on voter turnout figures from past off-year elections. In the 1996 general election, 71,063 people voted early.

Of those early ballots cast this election, 48,924 votes were cast by registered Democrats and 47,141 were cast by Republicans. The remainder of votes were from independent or third-party voters.

John Mason, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, said he is not particularly alarmed by the slight Democratic lead in early Clark County votes.

"The Democrats have a substantial lead in the number of registered voters in Clark County. For them to just have a slight lead in the number of early votes cast bodes very well for us because we have a big lead in Northern Nevada."

While the early voting polls closed Friday, Ferguson said her office will still be receiving some absentee ballots until her office closes today.

"I think early voting is a good thing because it is encourages people to vote" Mason said. "We should have 100 percent of our registered voters voting. Obviously, I want more people to vote Republican. But beyond that, we as society need to get as many people to vote as we can."

Paul Henry, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party, said the national trend is for more Republicans to vote early. But he said he feels good about the strong early turnout from Nevada Democrats.

"We certainly are not resting on laurels here. We will be working hard right up until 7 p.m. But I think we have done a very good job of reaching groups that traditionally have been very supportive of Democrats -- senior citizens, parents of school-age children and working men and woman."

Both Republicans and Democrats have operated get-ot-the-vote campaigns ranging from extensive telephone bank operations to volunteers walking through neighborhoods.

Ferguson said both political parties have carefully monitored who has voted early.

Both Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller and Ferguson say it is unlikely that the state will adopt an Internet voting program in the near future.

"The two big issues with Internet voting are security and access," Ferguson said. "We need to make sure the right person is actually voting. I'm not sure how you would do that on the Internet. Access is also an issue. Not everyone out there has access to the Internet."

Ferguson said she anticipates that in the 2000 election more than half of the ballots cast will be submitted before Election Day.

"I worked in San Antonio, Texas, before I started working here. In 1992, 52 percent of the people who voted there, voted early," Ferguson said.

But Heller said early voting does not always result in more people voting.

"Early voting does not necessarily increase voter participation. But I do think it makes things more convenient for those who would have voted anyway."