Early voting closes; primary Tuesday

As early voting came to an end Friday evening, a total of 4,766 Carson residents had gone to the polls ahead of the actual primary election.

The rest of the more than 28,000 registered voters in Carson City will have the opportunity to weigh in on Tuesday — primary election day.

Early voting this year was lower than the turnout two years ago in nine of the 12 days of early voting. Total turnout two years ago was 4,875 voters.

But it was higher than the turnout in nine of 12 days turnout in 2012, the last election cycle in which the presidential race was on the line. Turnout in 2012 was 4,136 for the primary early vote.

The difference is Nevada elects its governor and other constitutional officers in the off-cycle elections, which tends to draw more voters in heavily partisan primaries.

This year, a total of 1,569 Democrats voted early compared to 2,683 Republicans — not a surprise since the biggest contested partisan election is the Republican primary for Assembly District 40. The non-partisan turnout was just 514 voters.

For Democrats, the turnout was larger this year than two years ago — 1,569 to 1,441 in 2014. For Republicans, the opposite was true — 2,683 this year compared to 2,807 two years ago. Nonpartisan voters also were less interested in this year’s primary than two years ago — 514 to 628 in 2014.

Primary voters can do so between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14. The winners in the few contested primaries — the AD40 Republican Assembly race and the top two in Carson City Mayor’s race — will move onto the General Election in November.