Turnout falls below 20 percent

After the primary election, the county issued a news release that said, “Voter turnout in Washoe County was better than expected, and one of the highest ever, in the primary election Tuesday with 58,303 people casting ballots.” It said this represented a 30.9 percent turnout.

The release didn’t say what number they were expecting, but even that low figure was inflated. Neither was it one of the highest ever.

The 2005 census bureau estimate of Washoe County’s voting age population is 292,404. Of those eligible voters, only 19.93 percent turned out to vote—fewer than one in five. The county figure is the percentage of those registered to vote, not of those eligible to vote.

A statewide figure for turnout in the primary election is not yet available. According to the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, Nevada has lost more than half of its voter turnout in the last 44 years. These are the state figures for off-year (non-presidential) years like 2006:

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