Pressure is felt to register voters

Eric Leake

Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.

The magnitude of this year's presidential election has produced a record number of voter registrations, though not everybody likes the politics involved in getting out the vote.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said his office has processed more than 260,000 voter registration forms, which include change of address or party affiliation, this year. That is 160,000 more forms than were processed by the same time during the last presidential election.

"It's way, way, way more than we ever anticipated at the beginning of the year," Lomax said. "I attribute it to us being a swing state, to lots of interest in the election, and to lots of people going around and registering voters."

The main thrust of the voter drive effort ended Saturday, with the postmark deadline for mail-in registration. While those forms are being received, the county Election Department will continue to take walk-in registrations through Oct. 12.

Lomax said the county has received numerous complaints about people who push a party while registering new voters, though that is not illegal.

Linda Lera-Randle El, a homeless advocate, complained after she and a client were approached by a woman registering voters outside the Department of Motor Vehicles.

"She said, 'Well, we're only registering Republicans,' and she had a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker on the back of her board, clearly visible," Lera-Randle El said.

Her client registered Republican.

"This guy, after he walked away, was like, 'Well, I've never registered Republican before,' " she said. "It was almost like he'd been pressured."

If any party is using the registration period to their advantage, it would appear to be the Democrats.

Lomax said that in the beginning of the year there were about 30,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Clark County. Now there are about 43,000 more.

There are almost no laws to govern how people circulate voter registration forms, Lomax said. The county only makes sure received forms are valid, and it takes every one it can.

If, however, he hears of somebody registering only one party, Lomax said his office will take all of that person's extra forms and not provide any more.

He said he has also heard a few complaints of people being harassed or ridiculed for registering for a particular party.

"In the big scheme of things, the number of complaints is small when you consider we received a quarter of a million forms."

Lender Alexander said she has seen pressure brought to the registration process as she has worked a petition and voter registration table decorated with American flags outside the Henderson branch of the DMV.

Sometimes, she said, voter registration workers ask her to trade all of her forms of one party for all of theirs of another.

"I feel that if you're going to register you have to register everybody," Alexander said.