Voting early

We too have fond memories of those days when Election Day was considered “a big deal” to people, as Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, noted when he introduced a bill to end early voting.

But the practice has proven tremendously popular and allows more people to vote at times and places convenient to them. There has been no evidence early voting has triggered any significant voter fraud. The same cannot be said of absentee voting, which has led to fraud here in Clark County, but there is no move afoot to end that.

Mr. Hardy declines to say who asked him to introduce the bill and is rather vague on the rationale for the proposal.

Nevada voters since 1994 have been voting in various locales in the two weeks leading up to Election Day to the point where about half of the votes cast in the 2010 election were via early voting. There were some complaints about unions busing their members to the polls to vote early for Sen. Harry Reid, but it was perfectly legal whether early or on Election Day.

Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax says that if Mr. Hardy’s Assembly Bill 311 were to become law, his office alone would have to spend $5 million to buy the 1,000 voting machines needed to prevent Election Days voting lines from being too long, which of course would deter voting.

Even Assemblyman Hardy suggested his bill will go nowhere. So please put this legislation in a circular file and don’t waste any more time or energy or paperwork on its much-deserved demise.