Election Day rush swamps polls

The number of voters going to the polls on Tuesday caught election clerks off guard.

While the overall turnout for the general election was lower than in 2008, 665 more voters turned out to cast ballots on Tuesday than on Election Day two years ago.

Douglas County Clerk-Treasurer Ted Thran said 1,000 people voted at the Sunridge fire station before the polls closed at 7 p.m.

He said as many as 1,800 voters voted at the polls in the Gardnerville Ranchos. Final preliminary results were released after 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

Election Day turnout accounted for 33.64 percent of the voters who cast a ballot in this election. That translated into 9,620 voters hitting the county's 13 polling places.

This year 9,773 voters cast their ballots in early voting, far fewer than in 2008 when 13,320 residents voted early, but still accounting for a higher percentage of voters. Another 3,669 voters cast absentee ballots.

"There were 1,000 people at Sunridge," Clerk-Treasurer Ted Thran said. "Just think what could have happened if we didn't have two early voting sessions there. It made a big difference."

The Sunridge polling location, home to three north county precincts, was the last one to report results.

"There were so many people at the big locations, it took longer for everything to balance out," he said.

Thran said he would work on seeing how to bring more voters to the Ranchos during early voting.

Thran, who won his own race against Independent American Bob Conner on Tuesday, said he was pleased with his department's performance during the election.

Tuesday's voting featured a lot of close races, but only one tie, for the third seat on the Kingsbury General Improvement District.

District candidates Robert McDowell and Natalie Yanish each received 373 votes on Tuesday.