Editorial: Local voting better this election year

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1998 | 11:11 a.m.

Clark County's voting in primary elections went smoothly last week. But in Washoe County nothing went according to plan. A variety of problems, from computer glitches to human errors, delayed voting and the counting of ballots. It wasn't until 6:30 on Wednesday morning that the final numbers came in from Tuesday's elections.

Washoe County should take solace in the fact that Clark County experienced difficulties in the 1996 elections: a new electronic voting system without enough machines and polling places led some people to wait more than two hours to vote. But Clark County Registrar of Voters Kathryn Ferguson responded admirably, overseeing a well-run election this time. She put in place more voting machines, more polling places and encouraged people to take advantage of early voting.

Now that we have figured out an orderly way to vote, if someone could only devise a plan to erase apathy and get people to actually come out and vote ...

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