Half of eligible voters participated in election

Just over half of the 23,805 active, registered voters in Nye County went to the polls in the Nov. 4 election, according to figures from the county clerk’s office.

Early voting turnouts exceeded election day, with 6,325 choosing to vote early and 5,074 on election day. There were another 848 absentee votes. Total turnout was 12,247 voters, 51.45 percent.

Voter turnout by party wasn’t available except for early voting, which showed 3,266 of the 11,672 registered Republicans voted early, 28 percent, and 1,768 Democrats, 21.3 percent.

The secretary of state’s office reported the 45.51 percent voter turnout statewide was the lowest since at least 1978. The last mid-term election in 2010 statewide voter turnout was 64.64 percent.

During the last presidential mid-term election in 2010, more voters went to the polls in Nye County, 14,450 of the 24,740 active, registered voters according to Nye County Clerk statistics, a turnout of 58.4 percent, in an election featuring a marquee match-up between U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. and Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle.

In the last presidential election in 2012 when President Obama was re-elected to a second term, the Nye County voter turnout was 68.85 percent, with 17,589 of the 25,546 active, registered voters going to the polls.

Nye County Clerk Sam Merlino said the election process went smoothly except for a couple of voting machines that stopped working at the Ninth Grade Academy on election day and complaints from people who said they registered to vote at the Nevada Division of Motor Vehicles but weren’t registered come election time. One person complained to the Nevada Secretary of State about his problem with the DMV, she said.

“We double-checked their registration and we don’t have it. So I think the state is gong to work with DMV to resolve those issues,” Merlino said. “There were quite a few that stated they changed their address with DMV and we didn’t get that notification or that they registered with DMV and we didn’t get that notification.”

“We spoke at length with the secretary of state’s office,” she said. “Whatever the problem is we hope it gets corrected.”

Fortunately there wasn’t a real tight race this year where a few extra votes would tip the balance. Merlino didn’t have figures on how many people signed up to vote at the DMV.

Merlino said she personally dealt with at least 10 voters who had a change of address that wasn’t shown on the voter registration list at the Bob Ruud Community Center on election day.

Two machines at the Ninth Grade Academy wouldn’t calibrate so they were shut down, the county clerk said.

“We had a voter who when he touched it, it wasn’t responding. We had two of those so we just shut them down. The people got to vote for who they voted for,” Merlino said. “Normally the machines are calibrated a couple of times a day.”