Republicans once again Nevada's biggest party

Republicans once again make up the largest political party in Nevada.

Secretary of State Dean Heller said the GOP's total number of active registered voters passed Democrats by 6,912 in March.

The Democratic party held the lead for years in Nevada until Republican registration totals passed them in time for the 1996 elections.

Democrats reclaimed the lead in January 2001, but their advantage has never been more than a few thousand -- less than 5,000 for most of that time.

In March, the GOP reclaimed the lead with a total of 353,926 active voters compared with 347,014 Democrats.

At the same time, Heller said the total number of active registrations has fallen to its lowest mark in more than two years despite an increase in the state's population. There are just 840,295 active voters registered in the state. The low for 2000 was 852,158.

One reason for the decrease is that county clerks throughout Nevada have been inactivating voters under the National Voter Registration Act. Those voters who have not voted in a certain amount of time are removed from the active lists. The inactive list, as a result, is at an all time high -- 168,103 names.

After the two major parties, the largest class of voters is non-partisan with 115,844 registered. After that, the Libertarian, Green, Independent American, Natural Law, Reform and other parties combine for a total of less than 25,000 registered voters.