Thousands register to vote on final day

Monday, Oct. 9, 2000 | 11:32 a.m.

Saturday was one of the busiest voter registration days in Clark County history, with 8,500 people waiting in lines at malls and other sites.

"I went to the Meadows mall just to see how things were going, and it was unbelievably crowded," Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said. "I wound up staying for a couple hours to help because we had trouble keeping up with the crowds even though there were six or seven of us registering people.

"It was pretty much the same at the Boulevard and Galleria malls."

While Saturday was the cutoff date for registration, Lomax said that all registrations postmarked on or before Oct. 7 must be added to the voter rolls, and he expects that will add another 3,500 to 5,000 to the final numbers.

Because of the Columbus Day holiday, no mail was delivered today.

"We expect a bunch of mail Tuesday," Lomax said, noting that the trend is nothing unusual.

"People traditionally wait till the last minute to register. In 1996, 35,000 people registered between the primary and the general election to vote for president. It will be pretty much the same this year."

As of this morning 551,577 Clark County residents were on the active registered voter rolls compared with 522,464 for the primary. Of that number, 247,510 were registered as Democrats and 212,450 were Republicans.