Voter registration rises in August

The total number of registered voters in Nevada increased in August as clerks added 15,701 new names to the list.

But the number of voters listed as Active Voters actually declined because of routine list maintenance by those clerks. Actives are moved to the inactive list when they fail to respond to post cards attempting to confirm they’re still registered at the same address they were during the last election cycle or when them move and fail to update their registrations.

However, those voters are still eligible to vote on November 8.

Nevada now has a total of 1,587,476 registered voters, 1.4 million of them in Clark and Washoe counties.

As clerks went through their rolls, they moved a total of 11,876 names to the inactive list.

Democrats have the largest registration at 636,457 — a 107,576 lead over the GOP’s 528,881 voters. That gives Democrats a fraction more than 40 percent of the total compared to 33.3 percent for the Republican Party.

The next largest block of voters is listed as non-partisan at 320,851 or 20 percent of the total. Political observers have long pointed out it’s the non-partisans that decide most elections.

After that, the only party with more than a thousand voters is the Independent Americans with 71,833 statewide.

Carson City added 375 voters over the course of August for a total of 29,954. In the Capital as in most of Nevada’s rural counties, the GOP has the advantage at 13,380 to 9,298 — 44.6 percent to 31 percent. There are 5.066 non-partisans registered here — 17 percent.

The GOP lead is even more skewed in Douglas County where 34,160 are registered to vote. 18,240 are Republican and 8.298 Democrat — 53.4 percent versus 24.3 percent.

Likewise in Lyon County where 33.589 are registered. 16,474 are Republicans, 49 percent, compared to 8253 Democrats, 24.6 percent.

The two major parties are pretty even among Washoe’s 283,018 voters — 102,892 Democrats and 105,814 Republicans.

The big “D” lead comes from Clark County where 484,990 Democrats are on the books compared to 325,304 Republicans. The Libertarians and other minor parties on the list altogether total just 29,454 registered voters.