Editorial: Lots of room to improve

Monday, Aug. 14, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Election officials and political observers are predicting a statewide turnout for Tuesday's primary election of about 20 percent of registered voters. If that holds up, it will be the lowest turnout since 1970. The lowest since that date, 23.3 percent, was recorded in 2000.

One reason experts believe this primary will see a record low is because the primary was moved up to Aug. 15 this year, instead of the first Tuesday of September. This gives election clerks more time between the primary and the general elections to prepare sample ballots, but it also means many people will be away on vacation, they say.

Early voting, however, blunts some of that argument. People who knew they would be away on Election Day had from July 29 to Aug. 11 to cast early votes at locations all around the Las Vegas Valley. Turnout for this year's early voting was consistent with past years, so perhaps the experts will be wrong and total voter turnout for this year's primary will be a little more than 25 percent, as it was in 2004 and 2002.

Even still, 25 percent is not anything to be proud of, considering the importance of the races. The primary elections will decide who the general election candidates in the major parties will be for such important offices as U.S. senator, U.S. representative, governor and lieutenant governor. A nonpartisan race here in Clark County is also under way among several candidates for the position of sheriff.

In 2002 Clark County had the lowest participation among Nevada's 17 counties, with just 11.51 percent of registered voters turning out, according to the secretary of state's office. Many of the rural counties put us to shame. Eureka County's turnout that year was 57.7 percent. Mineral County's was 42.95 percent and Lincoln County's was 40.3 percent.

We'd like to see numbers like that here. It can only happen if voters put aside their excuses and take a few minutes to visit the polls Tuesday. See you there, we hope.