Then The New York Times suggested last week that Nevada was one of seven states in which actions by government officials or weak laws have led to numerous voters being cast from the rolls.

While some states appear to be violating federal restrictions on purging voter rolls too close to a national election, Nevada was cited for too often checking up on Social Security numbers.

Both stories created their own little election-year din.

The Times piece sparked Miller to push back hard against what he called Thursday's misleading report.

"I want to assure Nevadans that any suggestion that eligible voters will be denied their right to participate in this election on November 4th is false," Miller said. "Further, the article erroneously implies that every unmatched record represents one unmatched voter."

If that were the case, Nevada's supposed shenanigans with false SSNs would involve more than 50 percent of all registered voters.

Nevada has a law requiring any voter whose record doesn't match up to still appear on the voter rolls. Then the feds are supposed to sort out the difference.

If neither the state nor the Social Security Administration can verify a person, the local clerk sends the voter a notice to try to verify the data.

If the person does show up to vote, he will have to show ID before he casts a ballot.

Seems like officials are jumping through an awful lot of hoops to ensure everyone is on the rolls, contrary to the Times piece.

Meanwhile, the mess involving the community group ACORN has led to some people believing that folks who are ineligible to vote will somehow be permitted to cast ballots.

Again, not true.

So while both stories sure are noisy, the real thunder this week came from Washoe County's voter registration numbers. As it applies to the Nov. 4 election, nothing is more important in Nevada to both parties and both presidential campaigns.

So let's get back to the real circus, no matter how grotesque the alleged voter fraud or voter purging might appear.

The voter numbers in Washoe are stunning. The red northern county isn't exactly red anymore.

As of the close of mail-in registration, the county was at a statistical dead heat between Democrats and Republicans -- each party has 39 percent of the electorate.

The real numbers right now give Republicans a whopping 105-person edge countywide. But since people can still register until 9 p.m. Tuesday in Washoe, that could still flip.

Washoe could easily flip Nevada -- and, who knows, maybe even the nation.

Miller's raid on ACORN took place after the close of mail-in voter registration. Had he conducted the raid a week before, activists from campaigns and community groups seeking to register voters might have encountered resistance.

But Miller's job is not to thwart voter registration, but to encourage it.

So the timing of the raid didn't cast a pall over the last-ditch efforts by those registering voters. And statewide, Democrats really made strides.

In the recent past, the GOP had mastered registration cycle after cycle thanks in part to aggressive courting of new residents and a strong marketing push. The story this year has been all Democratic.

Democrats had 93,727 more voters at the end of September. It's likely that number will surpass 100,000 after Tuesday's official close of registration.

The past two elections in Nevada were each decided by 21,000 votes.

Assuming the political landscape is similar to what it was four years ago, this election might also hinge on what today would equate to less than a 2 percentage-point difference between the candidates.

As of last week, most polls gave Barack Obama a 4 to 7-point edge in the state. With the margin of error, that lead is right on the past two election results -- only with the Democratic candidate narrowly beating the Republican.

Maybe it's true that many of these new Democratic voters won't show up at the polls. And maybe the edge is greater than it appears.

And maybe there is a 6-point differential between those who say they will vote for Obama and those who actually do in the privacy of the voter booth.

One thing is loud and clear, though: Democrats have won the registration game.

There are at least 30,000 more Democrats than Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District. There are more Democrats in both of the contested Clark County state Senate districts currently held by Republicans.

Numbers don't mean everything, but they sure account for a lot.

The start of early voting on Saturday will move the circus into a different ring -- the Get Out The Vote variety.

And with Democrats holding such a large lead in the registration numbers, the Republicans have no margin for error.

So go ahead and see the sideshows. We're getting close to Halloween, after all. But the registration numbers are the real numbers driving this year's circus -- and those who take their eyes off of that risk losing the election.

Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.