Nevada voter registration up by 40,000 to finish 2017

Nevada’s total number of registered voters increased by 40,225 over the course of 2017, finishing the year at 1,645,409.

The number of active voters, however, decreased by just more than 44,000 to 1,461,810.

Democrats still hold a commanding lead in registration with 637,450 total voters on the rolls compared to 540,208 Republicans. But the GOP inched up a bit over the course of the year, cutting the Democratic lead from 104,344 to 97,242.

Even when the Independent American Party’s 74,072 voters are added to the GOP total, Democrats have the lead. IAP members are considered most likely to vote Republican if they don’t have a candidate in a given race.

In Nevada, the third largest group of voters is the nonpartisans. The voters declaring no party allegiance grew 18,389 during 2017 to 358,820. That’s just shy of half the 40,225 increase in registrations.

The Democrat’s lead is entirely within Clark County where they list 488,783 party members, 156,176 more than the Republicans.

Clark is the only one of Nevada’s 17 counties where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans.

The numbers are close in Washoe County — 100,017 Democrats to 104,427 Republicans. But in some of the other counties, the GOP’s registration advantage is more than 2:1 and, in a few like Churchill County, better than 3:1.

Clark, with some 70 percent of the Nevada population, has far and away the largest total registration at 1.15 million. The smallest is tiny Esmeralda County with 592 registered voters.