More voters taking advantage of early balloting opportunity

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000 | 9:10 a.m.

State election officials are hoping that a presidential election year will result in a push in voter turnout and that these new voters will make use of early balloting.

Registrar Larry Lomax says that about one third of Nevada voters take advantage of early voting and thinks considerably more would use it if they knew about it.

"Ninety-eight percent of the people that have used early voting before use it again," Lomax said. Once someone sees how easy it is and doesn't have to wait in line on Election Day, they'll always use it."

In 1998's primary election, 43,312 votes of the 142,107 total were cast early, and in the general election 85,646 of the 257,601 total votes were early.

Early voting for the Sept. 5 primary election runs from Aug. 19 to Sept. 1, while early voting for the Nov. 7 general election will be from Oct. 21 through Nov. 5.

A total of 53 sites throughout the Las Vegas Valley will be open for early voting before both the primary and the general elections. The seven permanent sites will be at the Las Vegas Athletic Club on West Sahara Avenue, the County Government Center, the Galleria, Meadows, Boulevard and Fashion Show malls and Belz Factory Outlet World.

The other 46 locations will be manned by six mobile teams that will spend a day or two at each site. Some of those sites include Albertson's, Smith's and Vons grocery stores, Lowe's Home Improvement stores, the China Town Plaza and several area community centers and libraries.

For a complete listing in English of days and times that a mobile early voting team will be at different locations across the valley call 455-8683. For a listing in Spanish call 455-3666. Residents can also get a complete list on the Internet (www.co.clark.nv.us/election).

With it being a presidential election year, Lomax says he expects early voting numbers to be more than last year's totals. Early voting participation usually doubles about every two years, Lomax said.

Election department officials say that voting should be more convenient this year with the addition of hundreds of new voting machines and dozens of new early voting sites.