Party animals

6:45 a.m. I love Election Day. To me, it is more exciting than Superbowl Sunday, Burning Man and Christmas all rolled into one. I had stress dreams last night, something about sitting naked at a computer in front of a crowd.

There is nothing—OK, maybe getting caught up in a barroom brawl in a dive bar on Fourth Street—that gets my adrenaline pumping the way the first Tuesday in November does.

Campaigns are the civilized version of a barroom brawl. Combatants look for strengths and weaknesses in their opponents—dodging a slander, throwing a position, psyching a rival—all the while trying to maintain the high ground. It’s a beautiful thing, like when a lion brings down an antelope, the circle of life.

I am the third person in line at Katherine Dunn Elementary in Sparks. A poll worker tells me she’s never seen such a line before the polls opened. Despite my familiarity with the ballot, it takes me 10 minutes to fill it out; by the time I’m done, 12 people have filed their ballots, one man has had his ballot kicked out by the machine, and the line has grown to at least three dozen people.

“Thank you for voting,” says the lady handing me a red, white and blue oval “I voted” sticker.

“My pleasure,” I reply, as I rush back to my car to get home to check out the early voting news from the East Coast. And I am not kidding.

6:35 p.m.: The Washoe County Registrar of Voters Office is a beehive. The phones ring relentlessly. People are coming in with their voting problems. I don’t mean to stereotype, but it looks to me like a lot of people are coming in to vote in favor of Question 9. They might as well make paper airplanes of their ballots. The majority of the problems I see result from those mail-in ballots. Some people threw theirs out, thinking it was political junk mail, some didn’t save the outer envelope, some were being delivered by spouses.

Registrar Dan Burk, in between running to the back where the ballots will arrive, overseeing some hand counts of mail-in ballots and doing media interviews, waits on a couple customers at the counter.

As the 7 p.m. close of polls approaches, a group of women stand around a telephone with the speaker turned on. Someone has dialed “time” and they are doing a count down. A man runs in at 6:59:10, and everyone cheers at the last ballot of the evening arrives.

A lady hangs the closed sign; the door is locked. Maybe 20 seconds later, an envelope slides under the door. Too late.

At 7:10 p.m., the operatives come in a cluster. The campaign managers and staff want to make sure that there are no surprises: precincts missing, red-hots uncounted, computer meltdowns. In some ways, tonight is their night, the only night that elections can be ethically looked at as horseraces. It’s their night in the way Superbowl Sunday isn’t about the teams but the coaches. Soon, these coaches either will be squealing like schoolgirls or brutally subdued.

9:01 p.m. It’s all over but the crying. All precincts are in. The only votes remaining to be counted are some mail-in votes, today’s absentee and problem ballots, which got kicked out of the counting machine for one reason or another. The registrar makes a short speech, congratulating his crew and the 53 percent of registered voters who turned out to uphold democracy.

9:11 p.m. David Robert, the RN&R’s shooter, and I head over to Bob Cashell’s victory party. I haven’t had breakfast yet, so I hope the food is good. I’m trying to figure out how Zadra, Dortch and Cashell’s victories relate to WC-7’s resounding failure, and I’m so preoccupied I turn the wrong way down Center Street. I’ll bet I haven’t done that in nearly 20 years. Cashell gives a short victory speech, thanking many who worked on his campaign. How can you not like a guy who cries when he introduces his wife and old friends? Honest to God, for one split second there, I am afraid he is going to go all Sally Field on us. I’m amazed at the number of luminaries in this room; my lungs are filled with the odor of money.

10:13 p.m. The GOP is having their election night party at the Peppermill. Robert and I stay long enough to congratulate Dwight Dortch and Jason Geddes, who made his way over from his own party at the Little Waldorf. It’s kind of a zombie dance over here; no obviously shit-faced politicos, although this is the one night when that sort of behavior might be tolerated. Robert makes it to the buffet table, but he gives Cashell’s grub the superior rating.

10:38 p.m. We arrive at the fourth-floor convention space of Harrah’s, where the Democratic Party is supposed to be partying. Waiters are busing tables and pulling off table cloths. The TVs are black. We catch the last two party animals as they close the doors.

Ballot Questions

Editor’s note: At our press time, results were still unofficial.

Statewide
Question 1 (conservation resource protection bonds): Passed

Question 2 (anti-gay petition): Passed

Question 3 (sales tax exemption for farm machinery): Failed

Question 4 (sales tax exemption for race car parts): Failed

Question 5 (perpetuities): Failed

Question 6 (judge terms): Failed

Question 7 (state debt limit exemption for schools): Failed

Question 8 (property tax reduction for hardship): Passed

Question 9 (marijuana): Failed

School District
WCSD-1 (rollover bonds): Passed

Washoe County
WC-1 (fluoridation): Failed

WC-2 (regional transportation): Passed

WC-3 (animal shelter): Passed

WC-4 (sphere of influence and municipal services): Failed

WC-5 (unincorporated town): Failed

WC-6 (unincorporated municipal services): Failed

WC-7 (train trench): Failed

WC-8 (tobacco use): Passed

WC-9 (secondhand smoke): Passed

City of Reno
R-1 (arts and recreation bond): Failed

R-2 (Washoe County/Reno consolidation): Passed

R-3 (remove Reno from Washoe County): Failed

Candidates

Federal offices Representative in Congress: Jim Gibbons, Republican

State offices

Governor: Kenny C. Guinn, Republican

Lt. Governor: Lorraine Hunt, Republican

Secretary of State: Dean Heller, Republican

State Treasurer: Brian Krolicki, Republican

State Controller: Kathy Augustine, Republican

Attorney General: Brian Sandoval, Republican

State Senator, Washoe Dist. 1: Bernice Martin Mathews, Democrat

State Senator, Washoe Dist. 2: Maurice Washington, Republican

State Senator, Washoe Dist. 4: Randolph Townsend, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 24: Jason Geddes, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 25: Dawn Gibbons, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 26: Sharron Angle, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 27: Sheila Leslie, Democrat

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 30: Don Gustavson, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 31: Bernie Anderson, Democrat

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 32: John Marvel, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 35: Pete Goicoechea, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 39: Lynn Hettrick, Republican

State Assemblyperson, Dist. 40: Ron Knecht, Republican

County partisan offices
County Commissioner, Dist. 2: David Humke, Republican

County Commissioner, Dist. 3: Pete J. Sferrazza, Democrat

County Commissioner, Dist. 5: Bonnie Weber, Republican

Washoe County Assessor: Robert W. McGowan, Democrat

Washoe County Clerk:Amy Harvey, Republican

Constable, Incline Village: Joseph Kubo, Republican

District Attorney: Dick Gammick, Republican

Public Administrator: Don Cavallo, Republican

Washoe County Recorder: Kathy Burke, Republican

Washoe County Treasurer: Bill Berrum, Republican

State non-partisan offices
Supreme Court Justice, Seat B: Bill Maupin

Supreme Court Justice, Seat D: Mark Gibbons

State Board of Education, District 10: Cliff Ferry

Regent, University of Nevada, Dist. 10: Howard Rosenberg

District non-partisan offices
District Court Judge, Dept. 1: Janet J. Berry

District Court Judge, Dept. 2: Charles M. McGee

District Court Judge, Dept. 3: Jerry Polaha

District Court Judge, Dept. 4: Connie J. Steinheimer

District Court Judge, Dept. 6: Brent T. Adams

District Court Judge, Dept. 7: Peter I. Breen

District Court Judge, Dept. 8: Steven R. Kosach

District Court Judge, Dept. 9: James W. Hardesty

District Court Judge, Dept. 10: Steve Elliott

District Court Judge, Dept. 12: Frances Doherty

Trustee, School Board, Seat B: Nancy Hollinger

Trustee, School Board, Seat C: Galen Mitchell

Trustee, School Board, Seat F: Lezlie Porter

County non-partisan offices
Sheriff: Dennis Balaam

City of Reno offices

Mayor: Bob Cashell

Councilperson, Ward 2: Sharon Zadra

Councilperson, Ward 4: Dwight Dortch

City Attorney: Patricia Lynch

Municipal Court: Jay W. Dilworth