Website features easy access to results

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2000 | 10:23 a.m.

One of the problems with searching election night results at a number of websites is that you have to spend a lot of time scrolling up and down the page to find the races in which you are interested.

Not so with Vegas.com, a leader in the Internet industry and one of the state's largest computer Internet websites, and its user-friendly lasvegassun.com.

If you are interested in some of the lesser publicized races that it seemingly takes forever to get reported on TV, you can create your own election night results Web page at the click of your mouse on the Las Vegas Sun's website and get those results on demand, throughout the night.

"Like the rest of our website, it's simple to use," said Bryan Allison, director of content for Vegas.com.

"You choose a race, or group of races, click on them and create a customized Web page that automatically refreshes itself every 10 minutes -- just as the votes are counted by the Clark County Election Department. You can bookmark that page, surf the 'Net and come back to it throughout the night to get the results."

That, Allison says, is just one advantage of using the Sun's website to get the returns.

"We also link the candidates to their profiles, so if there is a race that is not on your ballot, but you are interested in knowing more about who is seeking that office, you can read what the candidates say about themselves," Allison said.

"Also, we'll have statewide returns and other results from our Associated Press feed to provide strong overall election coverage, from the local races to the presidency."

Of the few thousand people expected to visit the Sun's website for election results, a number are from out of state, especially Washington, D.C.

"We may be a small state, but there is a lot of interest in some of our races," Allison said, referring to Republican John Ensign, a former congressman, and Democrat Ed Bernstein, a local attorney, who are vying for the seat of retiring Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.

With Ensign favored, that could be an important swing seat in the Senate for the Republicans -- "a race that will be watched by the entire nation," Allison said.

He noted that with Vegas.com's high-tech capabilities, it can easily handle all of the Web traffic to the site without the delays that are common on sites that get a lot of hits at once.

Vegas.com established the Sun's website in 1996, long before many other newspapers were on the World Wide Web. The rival Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, for example, did not establish its website until two years later.

"We not only have the technology, but we also try to deliver the information on the cutting edge," Allison said. "We get a lot of compliments about our election night coverage and how simple it is to access the information on our website."