The first full week of early voting in Humboldt County has been steady, according to the staff in the county clerk's office. Voters seem to really like being able to do their civic duty on their own schedule, rather than waiting for Election Day.
The clerk and her deputies have been overseeing early voting each day since Saturday, Oct. 18.
This year's voter turnout is not projected to be as high as two years ago - a presidential election, which drew an 80 percent voter turnout in Humboldt County. Whatever the final numbers, a large percentage of those votes will be cast prior to Nov. 4.
Week one totals for early voting show 163 people cast their votes on the first day, Saturday, Oct. 18. Daily totals for Monday, Oct. 20 through Saturday, Oct. 24 were 184, 138, 134, 160, 155 and 124, for a total of 1,058 votes cast before the county clerk's office opened early voting again Monday morning.
Adding in absentee ballots brings the total to 1,248.
Humboldt County Clerk Tami Spero said she expects voter turnout for this mid-term election to be from 73 percent to 75 percent, which is much higher than in many other counties in Nevada and across the country, but is a little lower than usual for Humboldt County turnout for a mid-term election. The last mid-term brought 76 percent of registered voters to the polls, but Spero mentioned that the last mid-term included the senate race where Sharon Angle challenged Harry Reid, and there were many robo-calls and other efforts to get out the vote.
Spero said early voter turnout is a little off - so far, about 100 fewer people have voted than by this point for the last mid-term election. She said it may be that people are still researching and deciding.
The courthouse and clerk's office will be open for early voting 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. all this week through Friday, Oct. 31.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 4.[[In-content Ad]]
