Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Nevada is neglected by presidential candidates as they strive for their party's nomination, and a Democratic assemblyman wants to revive the presidential primary elections in this state.
Assemblyman Bob McCleary, D-Las Vegas, said the state is being ignored as the candidates visit those states with presidential primary elections or big caucus delegations.
McCleary told the Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics and Constitutional Amendments Committee Thursday that a presidential primary on Feb. 16, 2008, would draw national interest, get the candidates to come to Nevada to spend money and to talk about local issues.
Nevada would be the 10th state to hold a primary that year.
In the last election, he said there were 443,000 Democrats registered and an estimated 5,000 turned out for the party precinct caucuses to express their preferences for the nominee.
Republicans held a presidential preference primary in 1996 and more than 140,000 voters turned out, favoring Bob Dole as their nominee.
With Nevada's five electoral votes in the general election, McCleary said the state received considerable attention in the campaign last year because of the closeness of the election. Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry campaigned in the state.
But the state didn't become important until after the parties chose their nominees. Part of the reason, he said, is that Republicans had 28 delegates to the national convention where the total was more than 1,100. Democrats sent 27 delegates to the national convention where there were 4,290 delegates.
Nevada had presidential primary elections in the 1920s and 1930s, but they were eliminated because of the cost, McCleary said.
There was a presidential preference primary in May 1980 in which the Democrats backed President Jimmy Carter as their nominee again and the Republicans selected Ronald Reagan.
Assemblywoman Ellen Koivisto, D-Las Vegas, the chairwoman of the committee, said she wanted to know why the state abandoned the presidential primaries and also wanted to know the turnout in the past elections.
Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, said the presidential primary was a good idea, but he questioned "if the people would support it."
Assembly Bill 302 would require $1.4 million be set aside in 2008 for the election, but McCleary said it could be done for about $800,000.
Clark County Voter Registrar Larry Lomax said the cost could be held down by a mail election.
No action was taken by the committee.
The committee also heard testimony on a bill by Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, to require voters to show some type of official identification before they are allowed to cast their ballot.
Angle said there is no identification required when a person shows up at the polls to vote and that can lead to fraud. She said there are abuses in voting and, "We are not as honorable as in past generations."
"I don't want somebody voting who is not qualified" she said. Nobody knows if the person who signs up to vote is actually the registered voter, she said.
But Assembly Bill 268 by Angle ran into opposition from the ACLU, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, the Latin Chamber of Commerce and others.
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said she has never heard a complaint from the registrar of voters or county clerks. "This may be a problem that doesn't exist," she said.
The committee took the testimony under advisement and will make a decision later.
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