Turnout & guns, reality & bailouts, China & less drilling concern voters

Carson City residents voiced various reasons Tuesday for voting either to keep the Democrat in the White House or send his Republican challenger there next year.Young and old alike at both city polling places presented rationales that spanned a range of issues.“I don't think there are enough young voters,” said Lindsey Bley, a University of Nevada, Reno, student from Carson City who is registered in her home community.So Bley's concern was turnout of the youth vote, which she was helping to boost at the Carson City Community Center polling place. She expressed apprehension that fewer young supporters of President Obama in 2008 would show up to vote for him again this year.Bley, who also works at a Reno restaurant, said she is taking business courses at UNR.Jack Lynn of Carson City, a retired salesman, was in the opposite camp, supporting the GOP's Mitt Romney.He said it was “because I'm sick and tired of Obama,” plus worries about what the president might do in a second term. Lynn, who also voted at the community center, said he is a longtime member of the National Rifle Association.Carson City Clerk Alan Glover, overseeing matters at the center, said his estimate that 91 percent of the city's voters would turn out through Tuesday should hold or be exceeded.“It might be higher; I don't know,” he said. “It looks like they're coming in.”He said turnout looked solid at the center, and he expected the same at Fuji Park, the other polling place on the city's south side.Combined with the 60 percent turnout from early voting this year, he said, the percentage projection looked solid.Voting Tuesday had come in waves, according to observers, and the after work crowd at that point was still to come.Meanwhile at the Fuji Park polling place, those supporting Romney or Obama also shared their reasons.“I think he listens to too many other people's suggestions,” said Jim Bike, assessing the president's first term. Bike, after disclosing his vote for Romney, also said the government bailouts for banks and automobile makers weren't handled well. But Lorraine Wirkus voted for Obama.“I just feel that he has more of a sense of reality,” she said.Wirkus said she was against more drilling in the energy sector and didn't want to see the United States pick a fight with China — especially since the Chinese hold so much U.S. debt. Others emerging from each polling place gave reasons but not their names.One woman at the community center said she didn't support Romney because of the running mate he picked. The nod went to Rep. Paul Ryan, a conservative from Wisconsin.Folks at Fuji Park supporting Romney said Obama hadn't done anything, didn't produce the change he promised or that the GOP nominee was the lesser of two evils.