Addressing low voter turnout

Sunday, April 12, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Five municipalities in Southern Nevada conducted primary elections Tuesday in races for mayor, city council and municipal court, but you would hardly know it from the paltry turnout. Of the nearly 469,000 registered voters in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City and Mesquite, only 10.4 percent cast votes.

That makes it hard for the winners to say they have mandates.

A reasonable argument can be made that apathy is responsible for the low turnout, but let’s not dismiss another possible factor: Southern Nevadans are suffering from voter fatigue.

Consider that Southern Nevada has been on a nonstop election treadmill since the state participated in presidential election caucuses early last year. Nevada, a key battleground state, was deluged with presidential candidates and campaign ads in the run-up to the caucuses. That was followed by the statewide primary and general elections last fall and now this year’s municipal elections.

A reasonable solution would be for the Nevada Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 256, which was approved Thursday by the Assembly Elections, Procedures, Ethics and Constitutional Amendments Committee. AB256 would eliminate the odd-year municipal elections by requiring that they be conducted instead at the same time as the primary and general elections in even-numbered years beginning in 2012.

One supporter of the legislation is Clark County because it is estimated that taxpayers will save $1 million per election cycle by combining the municipal elections with the statewide contests. Another benefit of making the switch is that municipal races would attract much higher turnout.

Municipal races are vitally important because they deal with issues at grass-roots community levels. Separating those races from elections held in even-numbered years, when voters are most focused on candidates, has been a mistake.