Voter registration shows GOP rules in Carson-Douglas

Republicans hold a nearly 1,000-voter-registration advantage statewide for Tuesday elections. But in Carson City and Douglas County, Republicans have much stronger control in total registration compared to the GOP registration in the rest of the state.

The figures were issued Thursday by the Secretary of State's Office, listing the number of registered voters in each of Nevada's 17 counties who will be eligible to participate in the upcoming elections.

The advantage is much closer than in 1996 when the GOP held a 4,000-vote edge in the statewide totals and 1998 when the Republicans led by 2,500 voters.

Altogether, there are 365,593 registered Democrats in the state and 366,431 Republicans.

But the outcome of the presidential contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore may depend on how the 122,339 non-partisan independents vote as well as smaller numbers of minor party voters.

The party split is nowhere near that close in the Carson-Douglas area, where Republicans lead the capital's registration totals 12,293 to 9,299 with 3,115 non-partisan voters.

And Douglas is Nevada's most heavily Republican county with 12,590 listing themselves with the GOP and just 6,012 Democrats. Douglas has 2,462 nonpartisan voters.

Lyon County is also Republican in registration with 8,307 Republicans and 6,038 Democrats. There are 2,318 nonpartisan voters there.

Altogether, there are 878,970 registered voters in the state, 553,941 of them in Clark County.