Here’s the way Ray Bacon figures the political math:

About 25 percent of the people who vote in Nevada work for companies in the private sector. The other 75 percent of the voters work in the government and non-profit sectors.

“We are getting the government they vote for,” says Bacon, the executive director of the Nevada Manufacturers Association.

Seeking to boost the involvement of private-sector workers on Election Day, the manufacturers association and other business groups are re-energizing the Nevada Prosperity Project.

The project is part of a network of similar statewide organizations created by the Business Industry Political Action Committee, a Washington, D.C., organization whose name — usually shortened to “BIPAC” — sums up its work.

At the state level, the Prosperity Project enlists employers who provide information to their employees about the voting records of elected officials and candidates for election. BIPAC staffers pull together the information.

Some employers create their own Web sites to detail the voting records and provide a system for employees to write their elected representatives.

Other Web sites are developed by associations or business groups. The Nevada Prosperity Project’s Web site — nevadaprosperity.org — lays out the group’s state agenda and provides some tools for voters.

Assuming the information is presented well, workers vote much like their employers.

“Most of the time, employees will vote in their own best interest,” says Bacon.

A study by BIPAC last year found 55 percent of all working voters wish their employers would provide more information, and 46 percent of them said the information they received from their employer influenced the way they voted.

“In many races, a couple hundred new pro-business voters can easily make a huge difference,” Bacon says. In some legislative districts with 40,000 potential voters, he says, fewer than 8,000 made it to the polls.

Stephanie Herrera, who’s marketing the Prosperity Project to manufacturers and other businesses, says the program has been in operation in Nevada for six years, but organizers plan to dramatically gear up its presence.

“The business community and the political community can expect to see a lot more from the Prosperity Project,” she says.

Along with the manufacturers associations, trade and professional groups such as the Retail Association of Nevada are committed to involving their members, Herrera says.

So far, she says, the program has met a warm reception from professional associations as well as individual businesspeople in northern Nevada.

Bacon says the recently completed legislative session once again showed the importance of private-sector involvement with elections and the political process.

“We heard it said during the Legislative session that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

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