Early voters turn out at City Hall

Heather Cory

With the help of volunteer, Manny Escobedo, right, Russell Murray, left, takes advantage of early voting for the primary election at City Hall in Boulder City on Aug. 5.

By Cassie Tomlin (contact)

Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008 | 11:07 a.m.

Voters eager to help decide who shows up on the November ballot turned out Aug. 4 and 5 for early voting in the primary election.

In the two days, 644 Boulder City residents cast ballots at City Hall in advance of the Aug. 12 election. Valleywide, 33,993 people had voted through Aug. 5.

Boulder City voters “turn up in droves, much more than in Las Vegas,” said Manny Escobedo, one of 10 Las Vegas volunteers who ran the polling station at City Hall.

During Clark County elections in Boulder City, the early polling station is open two days, while elsewhere in the county, early voting runs almost two weeks from July 26 to Aug. 8.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he’d received 257 absentee ballots from Boulder City as of the morning of Aug. 4.

Since 2000, more Clark County voters have cast their ballots early in primary elections than have voted on Election Day, according to the Election Department.

On Aug. 4, volunteers at City Hall said a steady stream of voters filtered through the 10 electronic voting machines all day long.

Bob and Mary Ann Coleman voted early because they’ll be in Ohio during the election.

“It’s our duty,” Mary Ann Coleman said. “It’s just that time of year.”

Twenty-three states allow early voting, and 26 offer “no excuse” mail-in votes. Nevada is one of only four states that pays postage on the absentee ballots, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Web site.

Fred Holland said he’ll be in Oregon on vacation Aug. 12, but he would’ve voted early anyway as long as he’d had enough time to review each candidate.

He said choosing between multitudes of judicial candidates was most important to him this election year, and he’d talked to some of them at the Fourth of July Damboree celebration, a popular political stumping ground for Las Vegas Valley-wide contenders.

Holland cited “real, true fairness” as criteria for who won his vote.

A registered Democrat, Holland said he was also concerned with who will replace County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who can no longer run this year because his term limit has expired.

Woodbury, a Boulder City resident, 27-year commissioner and Republican, had filed to run for his seat this year, but the Supreme Court one day before early voting began ruled his candidacy void. He appears on the primary ballot, but will not appear on the general election ballot, even if he wins the primary.

“I’m sorry to see he lost out, and I’m just hoping whoever replaces him does half as good a job,” Holland said.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.