Nevada home to lowest percentage of voter turnout in the nation

Tuesday, July 4, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

Two out of three Nevadans choose not to go to the polls on Election Day, making the Silver State home to the lowest percentage of voters in the nation.

Only 33 percent of Nevada's eligible voters, those age 18 and older, took the time to vote in 1998. The presidential election in 1996 was a little better. But the 38 percent voter turnout didn't bump Nevada from its worst-in-the-nation status.

Academic and political experts say the biggest reason for the low turnout is the transient nature of the state's residents. That's the same reason they give for the lack of voter turnout in Hawaii, the next-to-the-worst state.

In 1999 and during the 1990s, Nevada led the nation in new arrivals, growing faster than any other state. But state demographer Jeff Hardcastle says that one person moves out of Nevada for each pair of people who move in. For example, from 1985 to 1990, 65 percent of the state's population changed residence.

Other elements that affect voting include a less-educated population and political cynicism.

"It takes some time to develop interests and loyalties that cause you to go to the ballot box," said Rory Reid, chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party. "We're growing so fast, and a lot of people who just arrived aren't feeling strongly about our issues yet."

Ryan Erwin, executive director of the Republican Party of Nevada, also cites the transient nature of the area, but said "this is a city of dreams and opportunity, so to not vote is frightening and horrifying."

Las Vegan Kerri Eiden has never voted in Nevada during her eight years here. She said she cares about issues, but she doesn't vote - and some of her reasons fit the profile of a nonvoter in Nevada.

Eiden, 28, is a transplanted Chicagoan who comes from a politically active Republican family. Her grandfather was a ward committeeman and her uncle was an alderman.

"There's an air of controversy, of corruption attached to Nevada politicians, and I am distrusting of them," said Eiden, the manager of Z'Tejas Grill on West Sahara Avenue.

But she also blames herself. "I don't feel I know as much and am as aware of as much as I should be. I should spend more time getting to know what the candidates are for. ... But it's not that much of a priority."

Eiden fits the profile outlined by Ted Jelen, chairman of the Political Science Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas: She doesn't identify with Nevada, and she is suspicious of government.

"Because of the large transient population, people don't feel rooted to the community," Jelen said. "People still consider themselves residents of another state."

Nevada's turnout of eligible voters under President Kennedy was 58 percent and has gone into a downward spiral since then. Jelen said before the Watergate scandal in 1974, there was more of a political conscience.

"Today they're proud of being ignorant about politics," Jelen said. "They're saying it's a dirty business and they don't want to have anything to do with it. Those Watergate babies are in their mid- to late 30s and they don't care. The people who came of age under Roosevelt and Kennedy still care."