Carson City voter rolls drop by 1,986

The total number of active voters registered in Nevada grew in almost every county from September to October.

But those increases were nearly wiped out by a 1,986 voter decrease in Carson City, which moved that many names from the active to inactive voter list.

Carson elections division chief Sue Merriwether said the voters were moved to inactive because they didn't return postcards or other mail from elections asking them to confirm they are still a Carson resident.

Merriwether said cleaning up the voter rolls saves the city money because those listed as inactive won't get a sample ballot next year.

"Printing the sample ballots has gotten very expensive," she said. "And we want to encourage people to keep their addresses up-to-date with us. It makes it much easier at election time."

The action reduced total registration in the capital district to 24,716 in October. Voters on the inactive list can still vote in next year's elections if they are still valid Carson City residents. If they miss two general elections, however, their names will be purged from the list and they will have to re-register to vote.

Statewide registration grew over the month, but only by 525 voters. According to the secretary of state's office, there are now 1,197,252 active voters registered in Nevada.

The biggest growth reported by the state was in the number of nonpartisan voters, which grew 356 to 184,632.

The number of registered Democrats increased by 182 to 523,345 and Independent Americans by 102 to 49,196. Libertarians and the Green Party also saw marginal increases.

Republicans' registration dropped by 116 voters to 425,635.

In Carson City, cleaning up the active voter list cost Democrats 671 voters and Republicans 710 voters.