Northern Nevada turnout brisk on first day of early voting in special congressional election

By Cy Ryan

Monday, Aug. 29, 2011 | 3:32 p.m.

More than 6,000 voters turned out on the opening day of voting Saturday in the Congressional race pitting Republican Mark Amodei against Democrat Kate Marshall.

Secretary of State Ross Miller reported that 399,010 people signed up this special election to vote in the 2nd Congressional District. Republicans outnumber Democrats 172,281 to 141.330.

There are 60,519 non-partisan; 19,194 Independent American; 2,742 Libertarian; 1,187 Green and 1,758 listed as "other".

Other candidates in the race are Independent American Tim Fasano and independent Helmuth Lehmann.

Early voting in Washoe County and Carson City was brisk. Turnout in Washoe County numbered 3,189. And 627 persons cast ballots in Carson City. In Clark County only 127 people went to the polls. At one point, Carson City Clerk Alan Glover said people were lined up two and one half hours waiting to vote.

Election officials are predicting only a 30 percent turnout for the special election on Sept. 13.

Amodei and Marshall are battling to succeed Dean Heller, who was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Brian Sandoval to replace John Ensign who resigned.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in only two counties in the 2nd Congressional District. Clark County has 13,618 Democrats to 12,238 Republicans. And in Mineral County there are 1,153 Democrats to 968 Republicans.

Statewide the total registration figures show 1,321,802 voters with 563,801 Democrats and 462,203 Democrats. There are 217,052 non-partisan; 61,239 Independent American; 8,587 Libertarian; 4,071 Green and 4,849 listed as "other."

Clark County had the majority at 908,480 and Washoe County was second with 241,819 voters as of the end of July.