Mix-up in Mesquite: Who’s on first?

By Mike Trask

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

A week after the City Council primary race in rural Mesquite it's still unclear who will be on the ballot for the June general election.

Incumbent Dave Bennett led the six-candidate field with 31 percent of the votes. Because each voter picked two candidates, that meant Bennett had the support of 62 percent of the 3,250 voters.

In any other municipality in Clark County, that majority would make him a winner, allowing him to retain his seat without additional campaigning.

But the city clerk in Mesquite, population 15,000, said it's not that easy.

The city code states that if a candidate receives votes from a majority of voters in a primary, that individual has won. But then the statute adds, confusingly, that the "candidate's name shall be placed on the ballot for the general election."

"It's clearly a poorly written code," Mesquite resident Michael Brown said. "It doesn't really sound sensible."

City Clerk Carol Woods is asking for the assistance of Nevada's secretary of state to sort out the matter.

On Monday she was unsure what to do, despite clear evidence that the voters want Bennett.

Woods has not made up her mind about which names will appear on the June 3 ballot even though election results are scheduled to become official today.

"There has been some discussion," she said. "I will make my recommendation to the council Tuesday night."

Mesquite, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas near the Arizona border, had a 59 percent voter turnout last week, a stark contrast to Las Vegas' 15 percent.

Bennett said he has contacted a lawyer to take a look at the code and results.

"On its face value, it would seem I won," he said. "I had a few people calling me and saying I won."

Boulder City faced a similar situation last week when candidate Linda Strickland received 27 percent of the vote. With voters, like those in Mesquite, casting ballots for two candidates, that meant that she had received a majority.

For about a day Strickland believed she still had to run in the general election before the mistake was discovered and officials announced that she had been elected outright in the primary.

Although that was good news for Strickland, it knocked fourth-place finisher Kathey Ditzler out of the race.

In Mesquite, J. Scott Fisher would be eliminated if Bennett were declared a winner.

Either way Randy Ence and W.G. Withelder, who each received 21 percent of the vote, will be on the June ballot.

As for whether Bennett or Fisher joins them, stay tuned.