Early voting goes “off the charts”

Robert Macy

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 | 10:41 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - Some 170,000 Southern Nevadans - hammered by millions of dollars in campaign advertising that ranged from cosmetic to caustic - are expected to go to the polls today. They'll join an estimated 123,000 who have already cast early ballots.

The figures mean an estimated 42 percent of those who cast ballots in this year's election will have done so before the polls open at 7 a.m.

"The early voting just went off the charts," Clark County Registrar of Voters Kathryn Ferguson said Monday.

A total of 85,646 voters cast early ballots before Friday's deadline. Another 33,450 mail-in ballots had been received as of Saturday, Ferguson said, with that number expected to climb to 38,000 before the polls close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Southern Nevada balloting is expected to run high this year because the six candidates in the top three races - Senate, governor and Congressional - are all from Las Vegas.

In addition, three county commission races are drawing strong interest - and big bucks. Entrepreneuer Sheldon Adelson, who is developing the $1.2 billion Venetian resort, is spending $2 million through the Committee for Fairness to oppose two incumbents and a newcomer, all Democrats. Gov. Bob Miller has attacked Adelson's effort and thrown his weight behind an opposing group, the Committee for Decency. Both sides are airing biting commercials.

Ferguson predicted that 60 percent of the 484,794 voters on the county's active voter rolls would cast ballots this year. There are another 78,000 voters listed on inactive rolls - voters who have moved out of the area or changed addresses, and cannot be contacted. The large number of inactive voters is the result of Southern Nevada's transient nature, Ferguson said.

Democrats outnumber Republicans on the active rolls, 217,278 to 190,705. The remainder are classified as non-partisan.

Because of the large number of people voting in advance, trends in many races will be apparent shortly after 7 p.m., when the early votes are fed into computers and counted, Ferguson said.

The record early turnout is also likely to mean shorter lines at polling places, a reversal of previous years when frustrated voters often left rather than endure long lines.

The first full-scale use of the two-week early voting period created by the state Legislature was in 1996, when some 36,000 people cast their ballots before election day.

Ferguson said the high number of mail-in ballots this year resulted from active campaigns by Democrats, Republicans and various unions.