Language corrected

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller has directed county voting officials to use the legal name of the Democratic Party and no other.

“In all applicable election materials that your offices produce, print, and/or publish, please be sure to use the correct reference of ‘DEMOCRATIC PARTY' and not ‘DEMOCRAT PARTY,'” read a letter from Miller to county clerks in the smaller counties and registrars of voters in Washoe and Clark counties. “We have received some complaints lately and there was a recent article about the incorrect usage of ‘Democrat Party.' ”

The party is legally incorporated in Nevada as the “Democratic Party of Nevada” (“Election office uses Publican Party tactic,” RN&R, June 26), though its incorporation is currently listed in default.

Republican leaders around the nation use the term “Democrat Party” as a tactic because it grates on the ear and because they dislike the notion of describing the party with a favorable term. Rank and file GOP workers are less enamored of the tactic. During 2008 Republican National Convention platform committee hearings, delegates led by Indiana delegate Jim Bopp insisted on using the party's proper name in the platform. “We should afford them the respect that they are entitled and call them by their legal name,” said Bopp, and that position prevailed by a vote of the committee.

Some language reference books now define the term “Democrat Party” as an epithet.