Turnout takes a dip as state releases early voting totals

Voting data for the midterm elections in Nevada through the end of the two-week early voting period shows that residents aren’t on track to participate as much as they did in the 2020 presidential election.

Of the 693,631 voters statewide who have cast a ballot, about 38% were registered Republican, 38% Democrat and 24% with another party or nonpartisan, according to data released Saturday by the Nevada Secretary of State. Mail ballots accounted for 382,067 of the votes.

In Clark County, 194,811 residents voted early in person and another 223,130 have submitted a mail ballot. The 144,022 votes cast by Republicans represent 42% of those registered with the party in the county. For Democrats, 37%, or 173,354 ballots out of 467,644, were cast.

By comparison, 578,482 people statewide voted in person (excluding mail ballots) in early voting in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic and with

voters motivated by the civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

As is typical of midterm elections, final voter participation isn’t expected to come close to turnout totals from presidential years such as 2020, when 1,425,026 of the state’s 1,821,864 voters participated. For the first time, every voter was issued a mail ballot for the 2020 election, and 690,548 of them took advantage of that method.

Since the introduction of mail ballots, Election Day turnout has fallen, as witnessed in the June primary when 101,243, or 21% of the total voters, headed to the polls.

About 46% of Nevada’s registered voters participated in the 2014 midterms; it was 62% in 2018, a spike in turnout as voters were motivated for change two years into then-president Donald Trump’s term.

David Damore, a political science expert at UNLV, projects the total midterm turnout to land somewhere between the 2014 and 2018 totals. That estimation would call for slightly less than 1 million voters participating.

But that’s not to say Democratic campaigns aren’t actively working to energize supporters to get off the sideline. Democrats brought former President Barack Obama to North Las Vegas last week for a rally.

“This election requires every one of us to do our part,” Obama said at the event. “I get why you might be worried about the course of our country. But I’m here to tell you, Nevada, that tuning out is not an option. Moping and feeling cynical is not an option.”

Notable Democrats are also appearing in other battleground states with a similar message, especially with majority control of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance. Polling shows Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt running neck and neck. The result arguably could determine whether the Democratic Party maintains the majority. The Senate is split 50-50, leaving Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, with the tiebreaking vote.

A close race statewide is also brewing between Democratic incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak against the GOP’S Joe Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff.

There’s more on the ballot than these two races, as the future of elections is on the line with Democrat Cisco Aguilar facing election-denier Jim Marchant for Nevada secretary of state. Marchant says that regardless of how Americans vote in 2024, if he is Nevada’s secretary of state, he will guarantee that Trump will be reinstalled as president.

There’s still time to vote — polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for in-person voting (see Page 10 for a complete listing of sites.). Mail ballots, the voting method used by 57% of Nevada voters in the June primary, can still be counted in this year’s tally if postmarked by Tuesday and received by Saturday.

There’s also still time to register. Nevada offers same-day voter registration, which allows citizens to register in-person or update existing voter registration information on the day of the election at any polling place.

Same-day registrants must present a valid Nevada identification to qualify. They must also be a U.S. citizen, be at least 18 years of age by Election Day and have a permanent Nevada residence.

New residents can still get a Nevada identification at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Because appointments at the Nevada DMV must be made a month in advance, the department has set aside 8-11 a.m. each business day for new residents to walk in without an appointment to obtain an ID before Election Day, said Robin Allender, a field services administrator.

It’s important to note that voter registration applications received by a field registrar — volunteers trained by the Election Department to register qualified voters on behalf of the Registrar of Voters — after Oct. 11 won’t be processed until after the election.