Thousands begin to cast early votes

Dan Kulin

Monday, Aug. 23, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

If it weren't for the ease of a free shuttle bus and an early voting polling place with flexible hours just a few hundred yards from his work, Cory Scott said he probably would have missed voting in this year's primary.

Instead, Scott, 27, of Henderson was among a dozen or so workers from The Mirage and Treasure Island on one of the late afternoon buses MGM MIRAGE ran to take workers to the early voting polls behind the resorts.

"I probably would have waited until the general election, but this was so easy, so simple," Scott said.

Scott, a security guard at Treasure Island, is not a registered member of any party, so his votes were limited to the nonpartisan contests, such as those for seats on the District Court bench.

The Industrial Road voting site Scott went to is one of 15 polling places that opened across the Las Vegas area Saturday for the two-week early voting period. Eight of the polling places will move every few days, mostly from one supermarket to another.

The other polling places, including the one behind The Mirage, will stay in place through the end of early voting on Sept. 3. An eighth permanent early voting site will open this morning at the Regional Transportation Commission building in the Clark County Government Center.

On Saturday, the first day of early voting, 5,151 voters cast their ballots. Another 4,284 voted Sunday.

Saturday was a slow day for the new polling place behind the Strip, as only 16 voters found their way there, including one of the site's election workers, George Rakers.

Sunday was far busier as about 100 people voted in the morning alone, Rakers said.

"Early voting is such an opportunity to get away from the rush of Election Day," Rakers said. "There are so many polling places, everyone probably drives by one every day."

For Leonard Leth, 63, of Las Vegas, and others it was the convenience of the early voting site that prompted him to cast his ballot Sunday.

"I come down to play at the poker room at The Mirage, so it's very convenient," he said.

Frank Paganucci, a security supervisor at The Mirage, said, "Without this I probably would have struggled to find the grammar school I was supposed to be at to vote."

Among the early voting sites, the malls have typically been the busiest, and on Sunday Linda Culliver was one of a steady flow of voters casting ballots at the Meadows mall.

Culliver, 53, of Las Vegas, said the short lines and convenience attracted her to early voting.

"It's great," Culliver, a school librarian, said. "It makes it much easier, especially for people who are working because you can basically pick the day and time you vote."

Culliver, a Republican, said she isn't even soured on early voting by the chance she could want to change her vote later, even though it happened to her a few years ago.

Culliver said that in general she has gone through her sample ballot, chosen her candidates and doesn't change her mind.

Nancy Zahorsky, 60, a receptionist from Las Vegas, said she and her husband have voted early in every election they could.

"We spent four hours in line 10 years ago, but this is so quick," Zahorsky, a Democrat, said after casting her ballot in just a few minutes Sunday.

"It's just the convenience," she said. "It's terrific."