Voter excitement missing

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006 | 7:21 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Although candidates are spending millions of dollars to attract voters and to try to capture their party nominations, voter turnout in the Aug. 15 primary election is expected to be only about 20 percent.

"There's no factor pulling people to the polls," said UNR political scientist Eric Herzik. "There are a couple of tightly contested races, but they have been negative. And negative campaigning depresses the turnout ... I don't see what big race will bring people to the polls - no taxes, no gay marriage."

Latest figures from the secretary of state's office show that 41,219 of the state's 957,406 registered voters cast ballots in early voting, which ends Friday .

Both Herzik and Don Carlson, a political consultant and pollster from Carson City, said moving the primary election from the first week in September to mid-August was likely to lower the turnout.

In the last five primary elections in Nevada, the turnout has been 30 percent or less. In the 2004 primary, 22 percent of registered Democrats and 21 percent of Republicans cast ballots.

Another factor lowering primary turnout, Carlson says, is that more people are registering as independents and are ineligible to vote in party primaries. Independents may vote, though, in nonpartisan contests.

"What is significant is the 40-and-under crowd is not signing up for either church," Carlson says. "They are signing up as nonpartisan."

With the population at the state women's prison in North Las Vegas exploding, the 2007 Legislature will be asked to quickly pass a bill for a $39 million expansion.

The rapid growth in inmate population - 17 percent higher than last year - is driven in part by convictions related to substance abuse, Prison Director Glen Whorton said.

To avoid sending female inmates out of state, the prison will convert a 92-bed wing at the Southern Nevada Correctional Center at Jean from a men's unit to a women's compound, Whorton said. That unit is isolated from the men's section, scheduled to open in September.

On Friday, the state Public Works Board approved the design to add 400 beds to the North Las Vegas prison. Of those, 100 beds will be in a facility outside the main prison gate for short-term convicts who have jobs during the day and return at night.

Jim Lord of KGA Architecture told the board that there are plans for another 100 beds for the rehabilitation and jobs unit at the North Las Vegas prison.

Whorton said there are about 1,200 women in the prison system, putting the facilities at North Las Vegas and the prison camp at Silver Springs in Northern Nevada over capacity.

He said he plans to keep women at the men's prison at Jean when it opens. They will stay in that 92-bed unit until the additional women's facilities are completed.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, who is creating a preliminary budget for the next two fiscal years, has estimated that $200 million may be needed for new and expanded prisons.

Nevada has one of the nation's highest rates of small businesses that do not survive their first year of operation.

The state ranks 47th in the country, with 18 percent of businesses unable to make it through the first year. In 2004, 32,000 first-year Nevada businesses failed. Only New Jersey, Utah and Washington had worse failure rates.

Tim Rubald, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, sought a way to help struggling new businesses - but was stopped by Nevada law.

The Nevada Tax Commission voted unanimously Monday to reject Rubald's request for a confidential list of businesses that pay the $100 annual licensing fee to the state.

Commissioner David Turner of Reno said while he did not see what harm it would do to provide the information, the law prevents it.

Rubald wanted the list of businesses to contact "mom and pop" businesses and other small companies that might be unaware of the potential aid.

Rubald's office, the Small Business Administration and the Small Business Development Center have money or information that could help young companies, officials said.

Rubald said he did not know what types of businesses are most likely to fail in the first 12 months, but he guessed that it would be in the retail or restaurant sectors.

Saying he wants his agency to be proactive to reduce the failure rate, Rubald said he likely will ask the 2007 Legislature for a change in the law.

Deputy Attorney General Dennis Belcourt said exceptions in the law allow some agencies to receive the confidential information. The Nevada Gaming Commission, for instance, is allowed to obtain the names of state licensed businesses.

The Economic Development Commission, however, is not among the exceptions. "Exemptions are to be narrowly interpreted," Belcourt said.