Better turnout seen for this midterm election

Timothy Pratt and Jace Radke

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2002 | 11:28 a.m.

Tuesday's elections drew 50,000 more Clark County voters than the last midterm elections, in 1998, an official with the county election department said.

With a total of 57 percent, or 313,605, of the county's registered voters, the election topped the 53 percent turnout of 1998.

"This was a little bit better than I thought," said Larry Lomax, Clark County Registrar of Voters. Lomax said he had guessed turnout would be about 300,000.

Given the county's demographics -- high percentages of people who traditionally don't vote, including those who have lived in an area less than two years, blue collar workers, and people with lower education levels -- he was pleased.

"So all things considered, (Clark County residents) actually get out and do pretty well," Lomax said.

The numbers were off from the 2000 presidential election, when 69 percent of the county's registered voters cast ballots.

Voting went smoothly, Lomax said, with the day's only wrinkles coming at its end, when a last-minute rush started about 6 p.m.

"This made it hard to process all these people, especially with the ballot being so long this year. And the people who vote at the last minute seem to be the least prepared, so they take longer."

State Republican Party Chairman Bob Seale said he was pleased with the turnout by Republican voters.

"I haven't seen the final numbers, but I'm on top of the world," Seale said this morning. "Our get-out-the-vote activities were overwhelming, and it obviously worked.

"We expected to see some closer races with the attorney general and lieutenant governor, but we didn't, and I'll attribute that to the get-out-the- vote efforts. The Democrats no longer have a lock on get out the vote."

State Democratic Party Chairman Terry Care said that his party will have to look at improving its voter turnout.

"We are going to have to figure out how to handle early voting, because those figures seem to favor Republicans," Care said this morning. "I haven't done any in-depth analysis yet, but we were disappointed with turnout in some races."