Supervisors accept presidential primary results, clerk-recorder emphasizes cost of election

Expenses for the Presidential Preference Primary held in Carson City on Feb. 6 totaled $131,733.50, while voter turnout was 27.1 percent, according to Clerk-Recorder Scott Hoen.

Hoen presented election returns and other information to the Board of Supervisors on Friday. Supervisors voted unanimously to accept the canvass of the vote.

Hoen told the Appeal the state will reimburse counties for printing and postage but not for election workers and equipment that are supported by local funds. Based on past reimbursements, he estimated the state may reimburse the city around 50 percent of total costs for the presidential primary. He said he has not seen anything in writing about what the amount will be.

“I’m going to the interim legislative and operations elections commission meeting on the 22nd of February, and they want our feedback,” Hoen told supervisors Friday. “So, Carson, Washoe, Clark and Lyon are testifying about how did the Presidential Preference Primary go. We’re going to testify the very, very low turnout. We’re going testify the very, very high expenses.”

Enacted by state legislation in 2021, the government-run Presidential Preference Primary is nonbinding, though state Democrats chose to use the results for delegates. The state Republican Party did not use the results and ran its own caucus Feb. 8.

Hoen said people were frustrated with the primary process, which had different candidates than the caucus. Former President Donald Trump appeared in the caucus but not in the primary.

“Two or three weeks before that caucus period, our phones blew up, just absolutely blew up,” Hoen said.

He added: “We’re going to testify … If people are upset about the whole process, just write your senator. Write your Nevada assemblyman and let your voice be heard about how you think about this because right now, we’re going to do this all over again four years later in 2028.”

Supervisor Maurice White pointed out the Presidential Preference Primary cost around $20 per vote.

“If you break that down in the general, it has to be pennies,” he said. “That’s one way to look at this from a business approach.”

Total turnout in the Feb. 6 primary was 6,693 ballots cast: 5,310 mail ballots, 774 in-person votes in early voting and 606 in-person votes on election day.

President Joe Biden received 3,248 votes for the Democrat side in Carson City. The second-highest vote-earner for the Democrats was none of these candidates with 257 votes.

On the Republican side, none of these candidate received 1,763 votes, beating Trump challenger and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who received 1,012 votes.

Of the mail ballots, 889 were undeliverable, three were rejected, and five envelopes had no ballot inside them, Hoen reported. He also noted the undervote and overvote totals. The former occurs when a candidate not in the race is written in, and the latter occurs when multiple selections are made. These votes don’t count but are recorded.

On the Democrat side, the undervote total was three and the overvote total seven. On the Republican side, there were no overvotes, but there were 22 undervotes.

“We saw a lot of ballots come through with people trying to write in Trump’s name,” Hoen said.

Hoen thanked his staff and 86 election workers for their efforts in the presidential primary.

“It makes democracy work, it really does,” he said.

Hoen expects turnout for the June 11 primary, which includes local offices, to be significantly higher than the presidential primary. More election workers are needed, he said.

Those interested in election work can visit https://www.carson.org/government/departments-a-f/clerk-recorder/elections-department/election-worker-application.