Nevadans line up to vote

Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2002 | 10:54 a.m.

While early voting may be becoming more popular, for some the tradition of standing in line on a cool, crisp November morning waiting for the polls to open on Election Day is a tradition that will never die.

"I'm 94 years old and I've been coming here for years to vote," said Roy Blue, a Las Vegas resident of 64 years, who today walked from his home near the Dula Center and waited for the polls to open at 7 a.m.

"No, there's nothing exciting about this year's race -- just doing my duty."

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax has predicted a 55 percent voter turnout for the longest ballot in county history. The polls for today's general election will close at 7 p.m.

Lomax is predicting that about as many people will cast ballots today as voted during the two-week period of early voting that ended Friday with a flurry of nearly 20,000 votes to bring the early voting total to 136,756 -- about 25 percent of Clark County's 547,758 registered voters.

Today there are 322 polling places for the 832 walk-in precincts. The election department has 2,300 voting machines in operation.

"We are encouraging people not to be afraid there will be lines -- there won't be lines," Lomax said.

Lomax said the machines have been tested, especially during the early voting period. Still, given the problems Florida had in the 2000 presidential election and since then, Lomax says he is leaving nothing to chance.

"Yes, there is additional pressure on us because of the media attention to what happened in Florida," Lomax said. "We always do everything we can to be ready. I am as confident as I ever can be that things will go well this Election Day."

Despite lengthy ballots, which include races from Congress to constable with several questions as well, Lomax said voters who come prepared with their sample ballots marked can complete their voting in five to eight minutes.

Angie Snyder, a local resident of 40 years who works for a downtown motel, was one of just three people in line when the polls opened today at Dula.

"For me it's more convenient to walk here from my home on Main Street and vote today," she said. "If I wanted to vote early, I would have had to take the bus all the way to the mall."

Asked if she was excited about any of the races or initiatives -- there are 111 offices up for grabs by 248 candidates and 20 ballot questions, including nine statewide -- Snyder said, "nothing at all. I'm just here to vote."

Across the valley, at the Desert Willow Community Center in Henderson, Arthur Dobbs had just finished his morning workout at the gym and was about to go to the polls at that location.

"Voting on Election Day is just traditional," the retired New York state worker and local resident of three years said. "They didn't have early voting where I came from, so I'm just used to voting on Election Day."

Dobbs said he was fed up with the several mudslinging campaigns, especially for one of the congressional seats.

"It's a case where we have two unqualified candidates so I have to go in there now and choose the lesser of two evils."

Many of the voters who did not wait for today and instead voted early said they did not mind missing the last-minute media blitz by the candidates.

Several said they long ago made up their minds on everything from hotly contested congressional races to the passionate ballot questions dealing with a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages and the legalization of small quantities of marijuana.

"I don't like marijuana so that one was easy for me," said Teri Ellsworth, a retired accountant and Las Vegas resident of 22 years who voted Friday at the Belz Factory Outlet World early voting site.

Laura Schifferns, a 34-year-old Las Vegas native and Realtor who was voting early for just the second time, said she would consider again voting on Election Day if she were undecided about a candidate or an issue late in the process. That just wasn't the case this year, she said.

"My mind was made up early on who I wanted to vote for," said engineer David Seeley, a Las Vegas resident of seven years. "But it is good to have the option of either voting early or waiting until Election Day."

Asked what he thought of the thousands of Southern Nevadans who didn't vote early or won't vote today, the 94-year-old Blue stood at his polling place with a simple answer:

"They'll be the ones who'll (complain) the loudest about the politicians."