Election Guide News, voter information HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Voters were lined up at the courthouse as early voting came to a close. Nearly a third of the eligible residents took part prior to Election Day. Advertisement

Lines at the two polling places in Nye County were long as 8,078 people cast early votes in Nye County.

Those tentative figures from the Nye County Clerk's office don't include absentee votes, provisional votes or mail-in ballots.

That figure equals almost one-third of the 25,657 registered voters by the close of the registration period Oct. 14. A breakdown by party affiliation wasn't avaiilable for the early votes.

Early voting ended at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Pahrump but continued in Tonopah.

Sheila Winn, Nye County chief deputy clerk, said about a dozen people said they registered to vote at the Pahrump Fall Festival but weren't listed on the county rolls when they showed up to cast their ballot.

Winn said the majority of people who signed up at the festival to find out they weren't registered didn't fill out all the information, omitting things like their driver's license number, date of birth, physical address or their signature.

Another problem was people circulating the voter registration reports often submitted a stack of forms, meaning some voter registration forms in the stack could have been inadvertently submitted in another county.

Both the Republicans and Democrats had booths at the Fall Festival. There were also voter registration drives at the headquarters of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for president and at the door during the presidential caucuses in January.

"We strongly suggest, whether it is an election year or not an election year, bring it into our office and register here," Winn said

Twenty-seven provisional ballots were handed out, which permits people who aren't registered after the deadline to cast a ballot for president only. Those ballots have to be verified within two weeks after the polls close, in accordance with the Help America Vote Act, she said.

Elizabeth Pittsley, a resident new to Pahrump from San Diego, Calif., said she was under the impression she was registered to vote in Nye County when she signed a change of address form on a clip board solicited by someone circulating a petition in the Pahrump Valley Junction Shopping Center across from the Fall Festival.

"I didn't know we needed to re-register in another state. I just thought I needed to file a change of address," Pittsley said outside the county clerk's office Wednesday.