VICTOR JOECKS: Turnout in ‘Jim Crow’ Georgia tops Nevada

Election security laws don’t suppress the vote. Just look at the difference in early turnout between Nevada and Georgia.

Nevada voters have been casting ballots for more than a week. So far turnout has been low, bordering on dismal. On the first day of early voting, Oct. 22, a Saturday, just 11,400 Clark County residents voted in person. Registrar Joe Gloria blamed the wind. The weather can be a factor, but turnout has remained low, even after including mail-in ballots.

From Saturday to Wednesday, fewer than 133,000 Clark County residents voted early and by mail, according to pulling data from the county site. In 2018, Nevada didn’t have universal mail voting. Yet, slightly more than 133,000 people in Clark County voted in-person that year during the same time frame. Plus, 24,300 Clark voters returned absentee ballots after the first full week of voting. There are 18 percent more registered voters this year than in 2018, too.

Bottom line: Turnout is down in 2022 despite more ways to vote and a substantial increase in registered voters.

That wasn’t supposed to happen. In that 2018 election, Nevadans approved automatic voter registration. That signed up people — even noncitizens — to vote at the DMV. That boosted the number of people registered cast ballots. In September 2018, there were 1.52 million registered voters including 328,000 nonpartisans. Last month, the voter rolls topped 1.8 million, including 531,000 nonpartisans.

Last year, legislative Democrats and Gov. Steve Sisolak approved a bill creating universal mail ballots. Nevada implemented a similar approach in 2020, but only as an emergency pandemic reform. The bill also legalized ballot harvesting. Democrats explicitly contrasted their efforts with the election integrity laws in Republican-led states.

“At a time when state legislatures across the country are attempting to roll back access to the polls, I am so proud that Nevada continues to push forward with proven strategies that make voting more accessible and secure,” Sisolak said about the bill creating universal mail balloting.

One of those maligned states was Georgia. It instituted a host of reforms, including an identification number mandate on absentee ballots instead of signature verification. It required mail ballot drop boxes to be in a clerk’s office or at a voting location. It limited the number available, compared with 2020. It expanded early voting and banned campaign volunteers from giving gifts to people in line.

Georgia faced fierce attacks in response. President Joe Biden deemed it “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta. The New York Times declared, “Georgia GOP passes major law to limit voting.”

But the facts aren’t cooperating with the left’s nonsense. While early voting is down in Nevada, it’s setting records in Georgia.

“Georgia voters continued to hit record-breaking turnout on day ten of Early Voting,” a release from the Georgia secretary of state’s office said Thursday.

After a week of early voting, Georgia Public Broadcasting found turnout was “nearly 60 percent higher than the same point in time in the 2018 general election.”

Record turnout didn’t keep one MSNBC writer from sputtering, “The sheer number of early voters doesn’t automatically suggest democracy is in full bloom.”

Translated: People voting is bad for democracy when it exposes the left’s claims as bogus falsehoods.

Strong election integrity measures don’t limit voter access. Those who wrongly smeared Georgia’s leaders as racists should apologize, but don’t expect them to demonstrate that level of integrity.

That doesn’t answer why turnout is so low in Nevada. One guess. Democrats are demoralized, and Republicans are more likely to vote late. That’s a warning sign to Democrats who desperately need more of their voters to show up.

Looks as if they should have replicated Georgia’s “voter suppression” measures.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.