Posted on 10/21/2004 12:41:06 AM PDT by Cableguy
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A third of the way through a two-week window for early voting, more than 72,000 Nevadans have made it to the polls - with Democrats leading Republicans in total turnout in counties where most of the state's voters live.
A breakdown of the totals from Clark, Washoe, Carson City and Douglas counties, with 91 percent of all Nevada voters, shows the early voters through midday Wednesday included 31,853 Democrats and 30,488 Republicans. The rest of the voters were nonpartisans or splinter-party members.
A breakdown shows 63,198 of the early voters were in the state's biggest city, Las Vegas, with 45 percent registered as Democrats and 41 percent as Republicans. For both parties, that's slightly above their overall registration percentages for the area.
The surprise was in Washoe County, a strongly Republican area where the midweek total of early voters was 4,516 - 1,998 Democrats and 1,875 Republicans.
GOP voters, at 43 percent, were just slightly above their overall registration - but Democrats, with 44 percent of the early vote total, were well above their overall 36 percent of all Washoe County voters registered for the general elections.
Democrats voted early in Carson City in line with their total registration - 34 percent - and at a slightly higher rate in Douglas County. Republicans in both counties voted early at levels higher than their overall registration percentages - particularly Douglas, where 68 percent of early voters were Republicans. That compares with their overall registration of 56 percent.
"John Kerry is winning the state right now, and we're ecstatic," said Kerry's Nevada campaign spokesman, Sean Smith. "Democrats are outvoting Republicans and we're outvoting them in Washoe County. That's very significant."
"The Republicans tried Florida-style dirty tricks to keep the turnout down and it didn't work."
Smith also said the Democrats' internal polling shows nonpartisan voters "breaking our way by a pretty good margin." He added that the early voting tally so far is a good sign because Democrats generally tend to vote later.
While Democrat voting is up slightly over GOP balloting, Bush campaign spokeswoman Tracy Schmitt said, "The real story is how poorly Kerry is doing in Clark County," a Democratic stronghold where Republican voters are turning out in numbers not that much lower than Democrats.
Kerry needs to win by about 9 percent in Clark County to offset a big Republican advantage elsewhere in the state.
As for Washoe County, Schmitt said, "Historically, Republicans in Washoe County tend to vote later. We're pleased with where we are at this point in the race."
Secretary of State Dean Heller said both early and absentee balloting will be strong, and the combined total should be "way over 300,000 ... closer to 400,000."
"If you think there have been some long lines for early voting, wait until Election Day," added Heller, who's predicting that another 400,000 or so voters will cast ballots on Nov. 2.
Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said he's seen no major problems with early voting so far, and the county "is on a real good track to hit 100,000 or more by the end of the week."
Lomax had said earlier that the final early-vote total could exceed 200,000 by the time such balloting ends Oct. 29. "We could go way over 200,000," he said Wednesday. "The second week (of early voting) is always much busier."
Washoe County Registrar Dan Burk said he hasn't seen any big problems with new touch-screen, paper-receipt voting machines being used in all 17 Nevada counties for the first time.
"It's a fantastic turnout considering the highest number we've ever had in any election is about 13,000," Burk said. "We're a third of the way there already. The indicators are that we're going to break the record on the total number of early voters."
As long as these early dim voters don't show up again on election day Bush will win NV by a solid margin. It is a red state and that will not change this time around.
Let the voter fraud begin.
The Democrats will be voting once once per day of this 2 week long disaster.
Just as non-specific and genuine as "I have a plan".
See, I don't think that there should be ANY stats as to who has been to the polls yet (apart from the number of voters).
I will say that my parents have decided not to go to the polls early this time, WHY I DON'T KNOW.
I have already caught a cold that is going around. I am in Texas and sensed that some people already have it. RUSH even has a cold right now.
I know that last year I caught a real bad flu on Halloween weekend. Bedsick for a week. No energy to move.
I urge conservatives to go vote now if the opportunity is available.
P.S. My dad at least has been to the polls to vote early. I don't know why I can't convince him to vote. He's been voted Republican since at least 1968 (before that he had to vote Democrat in the primaries to have a say in who made the final ballot since the Dems had such a lock on the state).
You think this is bad? The last presidential election we had here in oregon, Multnomah county woudln't release their totals until every other county in the state did. My memory's bad on this but I think it was a month? There were a couple republican counties that tried to outlast them, but it just wan't going to help.
I am not even going to bet any that it will happen again. Just watch. It will make your blood boil. I'm going to need a stiff drink to get through Nov 2 here, because everyone in this state knows it probably won't end for us until Dec 2.
Remember, most Republicans are WORKING on weekdays. I own my own business here in Las Vegas, so I was "allowed" to go vote early. :)
Don't worry. It's just a bigger number of Lib welfare cases going out there to vote during the week.
I'm probably being naive, but why can't there be some sort of "rule" that ALL counties release their totals at the same time, even if it means delays? That way it'd be less likely for this sort of fraud to occur because the dems would be in the dark about how much they needed to cheat.
dude, you said Rush? I'm listening to Rush's "Free Will" right now.
"If you chooses not to decide you still have made a choice"
Lyrical coincidence, or a message from Above? hrmm.......... =P gotta love Geddy Lee.....
I've heard that the band Rush are big on Ayn Rand.
Well, I'm not big on Ayn Rand, but I do appreciate lyrical genius, whichever side it comes from. Remember, a good quote can be applied whichever way you direct it!
Besides, Rush wrote Tom Sawyer! They can't be ALL BAD, no matter how liberal. =P
Actually I hear that Libertarians are the adherents to Rand philosophy.
I've heard people also refer to Rush as a "right wing" band. Now if the "far right wing" is fascism, how FAR to the right do you have to go (away from communism/socialism) to get to libertarian? (It's a trick question)
Someone mention Rush? :)
haha it depends on your own opinion. Geddy Lee, lead singer of Rush, was raised with an anti-communist mindset. His grandmother was actually eastern Euro; she gave him the name "Geddy" because she couldnt pronounce "Gary", his real name. Regardless, the band is not exclusively liberal or conservative, but each voice their own opinions according to the issue. And i TOTALLY RESPECT THAT. if you disagree with someone, say why. don't just jump on the bandwagon. anyway, they arent TOTALLY conservatice or libertarian, but mostly so, and have my utmost respect for the fact that they make up their own mind per issue.
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