Voter registration deadlines start Saturday

The first in a series of voter registration deadlines hits Saturday.

May 8 is the last day a voter can register by mail in Nevada. The envelope doesn't have to be at the county clerk's office but must be postmarked by that date.

Secretary of State Ross Miller said Nevadans can still register to vote for another 10 days after that but, to do so, they must go in person to their county registrar's office.

The rules apply not only to new voters but to those voters who have changed addresses since they last voted.

Miller said the Legislature's decision to move the primary election from August to June 8 forced his office to move deadlines for registration and other election activities up by several weeks.

"Many of the 2010 races include high-profile primaries and I want to make sure that anybody who wants to vote in the primary isn't left out because they missed the deadline to register," he said.

Miller spokesman Pam duPre said the number of registered voters in Nevada dropped in April by 14,488. But she said the reason is several counties including Carson City but primarily Washoe moved a large number of voters from the active roll to the inactive roll. While Washoe's total roll dropped by 19,000, Clark County saw an increase of nearly 4,000 voters.

Those people moved to inactive status are still eligible to vote in the upcoming elections but were ruled inactive because they failed to respond to a mailer card sent to their last known address.

DuPre said a good number of those people may have simply moved but that, in the current economy, there's a good chance a significant number have left the state.

As of April 30, there were just more than 1 million registered voters in the state.

Early voting, which in Carson City is held at the courthouse, begins May 22 and runs through June 4.