Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.
Usually busy polling places opened this morning to nonexistent lines -- a sign, poll workers said, either of the success of early voting or lack of interest in primaries.
"We had one person in line when we opened this morning," said Jim Barber, precinct leader for the six precincts at Desert Willow Community Center in Henderson.
"Early voting undoubtedly played a role in that, especially since we had early voting at this location."
By the end of Friday, when early voting closed, 71,748 people, or about 12 percent of registered voters in Clark County, had voted early. Typically, about 10 percent of voters cast early ballots in a primary election and another 10 percent on Election Day, election officials say.
Polls close at 7 p.m. today.
This past weekend was about "GOTV" -- "Get Out The Vote" grass-roots work, such as phoning and visiting a select group of voters likely to show up at the polls today.
That could prove critical in several tight races to be decided in today's primary election. This past weekend primary candidates and their supporters contacted thousands of voters to make a last-minute appeal.
"We spent the first 100 days trying to figure out who's with us and who's against us," said political consultant Jim Ferrence, who is working with several candidates locked in tight races.
Over the weekend, Ferrence said, candidates worked to ensure those supporters show up at the polls today.
Early this morning little of that effort was evident.
Volunteers were at the ready at polling places, but the pace of voters was slow.
At the Dula Center in downtown Las Vegas today, one voter stood in line three minutes before the site opened.
By 7:40 a.m., just five people had showed up at Green Valley High School in Henderson to cast ballots.
"We usually get a lot busier in the afternoon," said Harry Waters, precinct leader at Green Valley High School where there were 11 volunteers ready to assist voters today. "You have to remember this is a primary, not the general election."
With a smaller group of voters casting ballots, only a select number of people will help shape the next state Legislature. Several races could prove key, including four state Senate races that could affect the leadership and direction of the state's higher house.
Other key races include a crowded field of Republicans wanting to face Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the general election, as well as two contentious races for the Nevada Supreme Court. The top two vote getters in each Supreme Court race will advance to the general election.
And there are several tough primaries in a series of Clark County Commission races.
Primaries are especially important in legislative races because they often determine the winner of the seat. In Nevada Republicans almost always triumph in Republican-held districts; Democrats almost always win districts where they hold the registration edge.
So the final outcome of legislative elections often is determined by who emerges from the primaries, when fields of Republican or Democratic candidates are narrowed.
Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who is challenging Sen. Ray Rawson in the hotly contested Senate District 6 race, said some Republicans told him this weekend they're getting three pre-recorded messages a day in support of Rawson.
"We're getting a lot of calls asking me how to make it stop," said Beers, who put out his own pre-recorded message this weekend and said he and his supporters knocked on about 400 doors Monday morning.
Over in Senate District 4, which was represented for 32 years by the retiring Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas, five Democrats are vying for the seat.
There are 100,000 eligible voters in the district, but a select few will choose the Democrat who likely will go on to win the seat, said Ferrence, who is consulting for candidate Cedric Crear.
"We're working 15,000 who are registered active Democrats," he said.
The district is so heavily Democratic that it did not draw a Republican contender -- the winner will face an Independent American in the general election.
It was a 10-hour day of nonstop phone calls and prepping for a television interview Monday for Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas.
O'Connell's team is working through a phone list of 7,200 Republicans who were identified as possible voters for the longtime senator, said her fellow Republican senator, Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas. Cegavske is helping O'Connell try to fend off a challenge from Republican Joe Heck.
Meanwhile, Heck and his wife also worked the phones with identified supporters, said Ferrence, who also is consulting for that campaign.
"We're zeroed in on Joe's supporters at this point," he said.
This morning seeking to monitor the voting process were being told to keep 100 feet from the polling places if they planned to talk to voters, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to prepare for a lawsuit.
At issue was a rule that states there is to be no electioneering or asking people for whom or what they voted within the 100-foot boundary.
Gary Peck, director of the Nevada ACLU, said that the Clark County elections registrar is interpreting that wrongly to ban groups that are asking nonpartisan questions about the elections process. Among the groups is the AFL-CIO.
While it may be too late to clarify that rule this morning, "If Election Day is over we would go to court if necessary and in the best circumstance there would be a ruling from the bench that would say you cannot prevent people from engaging in the type of lawful behavior they are proposing," Peck said.
Secretary of State Dean Heller had a different take.
"We will enforce the 100 feet," he said this morning. He disputed whether the AFL-CIO was nonpartisan, and said "what's to prevent them from asking them (the voter) who they voted for? We're going to protect the voter from harassment."
Larry Lomax, Clark County registrar, said "My lawyers are looking into it."
He said he had not received any complaints from voters.
"I've been notified that they (poll-watching groups) are at six locations, and don't seem to be causing a ruckus," Lomax said. "I think we have time to let the lawyers look at this and see the proper way to handle it."
Sun reporter Sito Negron contributed to this story.
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