Moving primary aims to warm up turnout

In all the haze generated by the budget fight between the governor and the Legislature, the fact that the primary election date and filing dates have been moved up two months was apparently obscured.

No one is arguing that August was a horrible time to have a primary when it comes to voter turn-out. During 2008, Douglas was the scene of one of the hottest primary election battles in the state.

Three county commission seats drew 10 candidates, which forced four primary elections. It was the first time in 16 years that a primary for county commissioner was held by the Democrats.

And yet, only 43 percent of Republicans, who had the greatest choice in the election, turned out to vote. Slightly more than a quarter of Democrats and less than 12 percent of nonpartisan voters bothered to cast a ballot.

Legislators blamed the holiday season for the low-turnout. Mid-August isn't exactly the most happening time in Carson Valley, and no matter how hot the election, warm weather seems to make voters sleepy.

County clerks, who are in charge of actually running the election, didn't favor moving the primary back to after Labor Day. The turn-around time for the general election in November was too tight for many counties.

So the Legislature looked to the beginning of summer instead of its end. That means the filing period moved to the first two weeks of March. Primary election day is June 8.

We'll be interested in learning if this actually helps increase participation.

Because Nevada has a closed primary system in which Republicans vote for Republican candidates and Democrats vote for Democrats and those who aren't affiliated with a major party get to vote only in non-partisan races, it's hard to get a high primary turnout in counties like Douglas who are dominated by one party or another.

We think that when the votes are tallied, there won't be a huge difference between June and August.