County posts early voters’ data on Net

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

It looks like a record number of people could cast early ballots this primary election, but some voters might be surprised to learn that personal information will be posted on the Internet soon after they exit early voting booths.

A voter's party affiliation, history of casting ballots, phone number and, sometimes, address all go on the Clark County Election Department's Web site the day after an early voting ballot is cast.

All of the information is public, though this is the first time the county has posted the information online for free, said Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax.

In the past few years, the Elections Department has sold the information to anyone who wanted it -- usually consultants, political parties and candidates. But Lomax said it's cheaper for the county to give the information away than it is to use employee time to assemble it.

"I hate to say it, but it's public information, so that's the way it goes," Lomax said. "People don't seem to understand that everything involved in elections is public information except for, obviously, how you vote."

On Monday Lomax said that a record number of people are casting early voting ballots. If the trend continues until Sept. 3, when early voting ends, more than 70,000 people could vote early. The actual primary election will be held Sept. 7.

Just 42,904 people voted early in the 2000 primary. More than 58,000 people voted early in the 2002 primary.

Another 4,381 people voted early Monday, bringing the total for the first three days of early voting in this year's primary to 13,816.

So far, Democrats have outvoted Republicans, 7,223 to 5,419. Election officials said that 1,186 independents have voted.

The county also has mailed and assembled more than 24,000 absentee ballots for this primary election, Lomax said.

Local political watchers said the information about individual voters that is being posted on the Internet plays a key role in local campaign strategy.

Many candidates have lists of people who have pledged their support, so campaigns can watch to see which supporters have cast a ballot.

If election day is approaching and the supporter has not yet voted, a campaign can place a reminder phone call, said Joe Brezny, executive director of the Republican Senate Caucus.

"It's been pretty common practice to monitor your early voting for a while now," Brezny said. "The technology is catching up with the process and making it easier to keep tabs on your supporters."

In the last days of early voting, when a candidate wants to stretch resources, it's better to cross off the names of people who have already voted, said political consultant Jim Ferrence.

"You don't want to be sending mail to people who already voted," he said. "You don't want to be calling people who have already voted."

While posting this information on the Internet may prove beneficial for political watchers, voters may not be too keen on the idea of having their personal information so easily available.

L. Davidson (who wanted to only be identified as "L" despite the fact that her full name was listed on the Internet shortly after she voted) said she was unhappy to learn that her personal information would be posted shortly after voting at the Galleria at Sunset Mall early Monday night.

"I don't know if I like that," Davidson said. "I feel like it's my own personal business. I don't necessarily want to broadcast what party I belong to or whether I voted or not on the Internet for anyone to see. That information should be for me.

"It's like nothing is personal anymore," Davidson said. "I feel voting is among some of the most personal things for a person, and even that information is out there in the open. People have access to everything about you now, and this is just one more way for people to know more private information about you. Nothing is just yours now, it's like everything about everyone is on the computer."

Also on Monday, Lomax and other county officials held a press conference to assure the public that the county is prepared for the primary and general elections despite a recent influx of extra work.

County workers are processing a record number of voter registration forms and are individually verifying more than 120,000 petition signatures in support of a referendum and two constitutional amendments.

But the initial review of those signatures is almost complete, meaning county workers can catch up on registration forms that need to be processed before the general election, Lomax said.

The county has processed 59,000 voter registration forms in the past 30 days, compared to the 58,000 forms processed in all of 2003, Lomax said.

Lomax also said that the county's new voting machines, which print out a voter's ballot for approval before it is logged, are working well.

The only problem is that voters want to take the paper printouts with them as a receipt for their vote, Lomax said. But the paper remains under a plastic screen and is retained so the county has a paper record of the ballot, he said.

Also, keeping the paper printout at the county helps prevent special interests from paying or pressuring people to vote a certain way, knowing that they can get proof in the form of a receipt, Lomax said.

"In reality, this protects the privacy of the voter," he said.