Volunteers Needed For TAB Straw Polls

By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Published September 10, 2008

The local Town Advisory Boards will be looking for a few community-minded volunteers to serve on a committee to coordinate and oversee the upcoming straw-poll vote for Town Board candidates. The subject will be discussed in both the Moapa Valley and Moapa Board meetings this week. Moapa Valley meets tonight at 7:00 p.m. in the Overton Community Center and Moapa meets Thursday night at 7:00 in the Moapa Community Center.

Actually, members of the Town Boards are appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. For many years, however, the Commissioners have sought the voice of the communities in these appointments through an informal straw poll taken on the regular November General Election Day. The poll is taken aside from the regular voting booths in a separate part of the room from where the elections are occurring. The straw poll ballots are collected and the results monitored by the committee of local volunteers.

Community residents who wish to run for a seat on either board can fill out an application at the Clark County Northeast Office. Their name is then included on the straw poll ballots.

Some important changes have occurred in the Moapa Valley township. The Moapa Valley community is divided up into five districts with one representative on the Board residing in, and representing, each district. Voting in the straw poll, however, has always been at-large in Moapa Valley; meaning that each resident could vote for one candidate in each district. The candidate with the most votes in each district would serve on the Board for that district.

This year’s Moapa Valley straw poll will have a major difference in its procedure, however. Voting will still be done at-large. But candidates will not be required to live in the district they represent. Rather, candidates will be able to run at-large as well. Voters will cast a vote for their top five candidates on the list regardless of where they reside. The five candidates with the most votes will serve on the Board. Then, when the newly appointed Board meets, each member will be assigned to a district that he/she will represent.

The straw polls are merely an informal community effort to advise the Commissioners. As such, they must be administered completely by community members. The staff members in the County office can only take applications for interested candidates. The county staff members have been advised that they cannot facilitate the straw poll process.

Thus, the Town Boards will be seeking local volunteers to serve on the straw poll committees. Also needed are volunteers to administer the straw poll in two hour shifts at early voting on October 28 and on Election Day on November 4.

“It is a privilege for our community members to have direct input into who is appointed to the Town Board,” said Logandale resident, Alice Crites, who has served as the chairwoman of the Moapa Valley Straw Poll Committee for a decade. “Hopefully some residents will step up and volunteer to help us out on it.”

Those interested in volunteering should attend this week’s meeting. Moapa Valley residents can also contact MVTAB Chairwoman, Judy Metz at 702-397- 8084. Moapa residents can contact Chairwoman Ann Schreiber at 702-865-2040.