New vote centers gaining popularity with Henderson residents

Lisa McQuerrey

Thursday, March 26, 2009 | midnight

In 2007 the city of Henderson started recognizing that while early voting was growing in popularity, voter turnout on Election Day itself was declining. In an effort to better utilize its budget and provide Henderson residents with more options for Election Day voting, the city launched its inaugural Vote Centers.

Vote Centers are non-precinct-based locations for voting on Election Day. With 15 sites at venues such as recreation centers, city hall and community centers, Vote Centers are fewer in number than traditional precinct-voting stations, and are "geographically balanced" to major population centers. The main upside for residents: on Election Day there's no need to schedule the afternoon around making it to a designated location before the polls close. Rather, residents who are registered voters have the convenience of casting their ballot at any one of the city's Vote Centers.

"There were several motivating factors for establishing the centers," explained Henderson City Clerk Monica Simmons, who noted that the Vote Centers concept has been implemented successfully in other cities across the nation. "We really wanted to create other opportunities for voters and, at the same time, bring more attention to the municipal election process."

While the city of Henderson's population growth and the fanfare of the 2008 presidential race yielded an increase in the number of registered voters, overall voter turnout in Henderson has steadily declined. In fact, the city's Election Day turnout declined by 47 percent between 1997 and 2007, while "early voting" enjoyed an increase of nearly 340 percent.

During the Vote Centers' first time in operation, the city saw a spike in voter turnout of 2.3 percent. While that might not seem like a significant increase at first glance, it's actually an impressive feat, considering previous declines. The 2007 election also occurred during the school district's Spring Break and at a time when many races on the ballot were uncontested, which tends to decrease voter turnout in general.

Said Simmons, "We consider it very well received."

Exit surveys conducted at the newly launched Vote Centers showed high praise for the centers from voters as well, with 93 percent of people rating them as being both convenient and accessible. In addition to the voting options provided to residents, Vote Centers also enable the city to reduce costs by eliminating print and postage charges associated with "mail-ballot only" precincts. Those living in rural areas may still request a mail-in ballot, but now have the added option of voting in person if they so choose.

Henderson is gearing up to implement Vote Centers again this year. Currently, the city of Henderson is the only municipality in Nevada utilizing this system.