Early voting opens Saturday at seven sites

Jace Radke

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 10:22 a.m.

Early voting in the Nov. 7 general election is expected to be heavier than early voting in the primary election because of the added push of the presidential race.

Early voting is set to begin Saturday at seven permanent sites in Las Vegas and Henderson, and will last through Nov. 3.

Between Aug. 19 and Sept. 1, 42,904 voters took advantage of the ability to cast their votes early for the primary election, and Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax expects to see a larger turnout for the general election.

"I like to see at least a third of the voters using early voting," Lomax said. "In the primary we had about 38 percent, and I think we'll see that go up in the general."

In the 1998 primary election a little less than 33 percent voted early, and in the general election for that year a little more than 33 percent took advantage of early voting.

In last month's primary only 142,107 of 465,807 active registered voters cast a ballot, but Lomax also believes that number will go up in the general election.

"Despite the bad turnout that we had, we did get a lot of interest at our polling places by people wanting to know when they could vote for the president," Lomax said. "So we should see a better turnout in November."

The seven permanent sites to cast early votes for the general election are Belz Factory Outlet World, Galleria at Sunset, Boulevard mall, Fashion Show mall, Meadows mall, the Las Vegas Athletic Club at 5200 W. Sahara Ave., and the Clark County Government Center at the RTC building.

Early voting totals from September's primary show that the Meadows mall was used by more than 8,400 voters, while the Galleria was second-busiest at more than 6,100.

The election department will also be employing six mobile voting teams that will be at different spots throughout the county during early voting. For a breakdown on where the teams will be stationed, or additional early voting information voters can check the election department website at www.co.nv.us/election.