Nevada Democrats, Republicans neck and neck in voter registration

Kiley Russell

Tuesday, July 20, 1999 | 6:27 a.m.

As the nation creeps ever closer to the presidential primary season, Nevada Democrats continue to cut into Republicans' voter registration lead.

But Republicans, who were outnumbered 2-to-1 in Nevada 25 years ago, were able to grab a plurality a couple of years ago and continue to hold a slight edge in overall registration.

According to data released by the Nevada Secretary of State's office, there were 370,944 registered Democrats in June and 371,499 Republicans - a difference of only 555 voters.

"All I can say is that is a natural phenomena and it's not unique to Nevada. Throughout the country more people are registering Democrats than Republican. The explanation must be that people must agree with our ideas," said state Democratic Chairman Rory Reid.

Statewide, there are 893,061 registered voters - 41.59 percent are Republicans, 41.53 percent are Democrats and about 14 percent are registered nonpartisans.

Libertarian, Green, Independent American, Natural Law and Reform parties combine to capture 2.6 percent of the voting population in Nevada.

People describing themselves as "other," numbering 2,000, account for 0.22 percent of the state's voters.

Despite the fact that the two main parties are locked in a virtual dead heat, the numbers reflect a growing approval of the national Democratic agenda, Reid said.

"National trends are important because a lot of people who've just moved here and registered in Nevada aren't familiar with local and state issues but are familiar with the national agenda," he added.

But the state GOP leadership says the Democrats have very little to crow about and their enthusiasm over voter registration smacks of desperation.

"I don't understand how they can be excited about their prospects - they're going to lose the presidency and lose the U.S. Senate seat (being vacated by retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.) and are likely to lose the state Assembly," said Ryan Erwin, executive director of the state Republican Party.

"There is no panic on my end from this, but frankly the Democrats have got to hang their hats on something," he added.

For their part, Democrats are just happy the trend is moving slightly in their favor.

"When we implement our voter registration effort as the elections approach we anticipate an even greater number people will join us," Reid said.