Early voters swarm to polling places

Monday, Oct. 23, 2000 | 11:24 a.m.

Early voting got off to a record-smashing start as 17,779 Southern Nevada residents voted Saturday and Sunday, the Clark County Election Department said today.

"Traditionally, 5 percent to 6 percent of all early voting is done the first day, but if that holds true, 180,000 people will vote early this year. But I really doubt that will happen," said Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax, who has predicted a 60 percent to 70 percent turnout for the Nov. 7 general election.

"I really expect that about 120,000 people will vote early this year, so that shows just how busy we were Saturday and Sunday," Lomax said.

"We smashed all previous records."

If that trend holds, early voting this year would break the record of 85,000 set in 1998.

In 1996, the last presidential election year, 4,496 locals voted early the first two days and 46,136 voted during the early voting period. Lomax said that represented 17 percent of all votes cast. He expects that 40 percent of all votes cast for this general election will be through early voting.

"We like to see people vote early, because it will be less crowded on Election Day," he said. "But we are ready for it either way.

"In 1996 we had 170 polling places and 1,170 machines. This year we will have 309 polling places and 2,186 machines."

On Saturday and Sunday lines were 30 to 40 people deep at area malls, but the process went quickly and the average wait was about five minutes, Lomax said.

At one grocery store, where there were only eight voting machines, 600 people showed up to vote, Lomax said.

Early voting continues through Nov. 3

This past weekend, 9,716 ballots were cast on Saturday and 8,063 on Sunday.

The busiest early voting location was the Meadows Mall with 3,181 ballots cast, including 1,823 on Saturday.

The Galleria at Sunset Mall in Henderson was the second busiest with 2,878 votes cast, including 1,539 on Saturday, election officials said.

The Boulevard Mall was the third busiest site with 1,845 ballots cast, including 1,131 on Saturday, election officials said.

The Belz Mall drew 1,602 voters. The Fashion Show had 618 voters.

The Las Vegas Athletic Club had 649 voters. The Government Center drew 341 voters, election officials said.

The Election Department's six mobile team units drew 6,665 voters to their stops around the valley, with each site getting between 700 and 1,560 voters for the two days.