Despite having two witnesses and a growing number of similar incidents to refer to, a state judge has decided there's no need to re-open registration for the residents of Clark County, Nevada, whose voter applications might have been ripped up by Republican vote registrars.

The Nevada Democratic Party filed the lawsuit after two former employees of Voters Outreach of America, a Republican-hired private canvassing company, came forward with stories of Bushian wrongdoings.

One employee, 26-year-old Eric Russell, said he was told to register only Republicans and that he'd seen a supervisor tearing up Democrat registration forms. The second witness, Russell's girlfriend, said she heard a supervisor order Democratic registration forms to be thrown out. The Nevada Republican Party called the claims baseless and suggested Russell and his gal were just disgruntled ex-employees. The same company is under state investigation in Oregon for similar charges.

With five electoral votes, Nevada - which Bush narrowly carried in 2000 - currently has 429,327 registered Republicans and 427,217 Democrats.

» Scott Saxon