Wednesday, October 25, 2006


ENHANCEMENTS TO WASHOE COUNTY WEBSITE MAKE VOTING EASIER
SUNDAY VOTING ALSO ENCOURAGES TURNOUT


Taking advantage of technology, Washoe County is making voting even easier by posting information on the county’s website that voters can access 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For the first time, voters are able to go to WASHOE COUNTY REGISTRAR OF VOTERS OFFICE and view a copy of their sample ballot, track their absentee ballot request, and view candidate profiles as well as other information that was previously available.
Simply click on the "YOUR Voter Registration status, sample ballot, polling place and absentee information" from the left side of the Voters’ page and enter your last name and birthday (ex. 05-16-1961). Your unique voter information including party affiliation, polling place location and even directions (when available) will appear. You can view a copy of the sample ballot and by clicking on the links PDF 1 and PDF 2, sample ballot pages unique to your precinct will appear.
"By providing this information conveniently from the comfort of citizens’ home or office computers, we hope to encourage voter turnout as well as helping the voters become more informed before they go to the polls," said Registrar of Voters Dan Burk.
According to Burk, 8,600 people have cast their ballots since early voting began on Saturday, October 21st. He estimates that 25,000 to 30,000 voters will choose to vote early before early voting ends on November 2nd. This compares with 34,000 early voters in the 2004 Presidential Election year which traditionally draws more voters. Burk attributes the impressive turnout so far to early voting availability on Sundays at six selected Scolaris grocery stores…a first for Washoe County. He anticipates voters will take advantage of the three-day holiday, including Sunday, to cast their early ballots. Early voting locations and times are also available at WASHOE COUNTY REGISTRAR OF VOTERS OFFICE.
"In addition to viewing their voter information online, the most important thing voters can do is bring their sample ballots with them," Burk adds. "Scanning the bar code on the back of the ballot speeds up the processing time."
Burk reports that to date, not a single early voting location has reported a delay of longer than 5 minutes for those who have opted to vote early.

1 comment:

Daniel said...

I love early in-person voting. I voted in my state's election on Monday because I'll be on a business trip on Election Day.

If you are a reader who doesn't live in NV or AK, go to FirstGov's voting page and see if *you're* eligible for early voting.

Keep up the good work Ian!