United States presidential election in Nevada, 2012

United States presidential election in Nevada, 2012
Nevada
November 6, 2012

 
Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 6 0
Popular vote 531,373 463,567
Percentage 52.4% 45.7%

County Results
  Obama—50-60%
  Romney—50-60%
  Romney—60-70%
  Romney—70-80%
  Romney—80-90%

President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2012 United States presidential election in Nevada took place on November 6, 2012 as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. Nevada voters chose six electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Nevada has voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1912, except in 1976 when it voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter. Since 1912, Nevada has been carried by the presidential victor the most out of any state (25 of 26 elections).[1]

General election

Candidate Ballot Access:

Results

United States presidential election in Nevada, 2012[2]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 531,373 52.36% 6
Republican Mitt Romney Paul Ryan 463,567 45.68% 0
Libertarian Gary Johnson Jim Gray 10,968 1.08% 0
Other/None 5,770 0.57% 0
Constitution Virgil Goode Jim Clymer 3,240 0.32% 0
Total 1,014,918 100%

By county

County Obama Votes Romney Votes Others Votes Total Total %
Carson City44.13%10,29153.15%12,3942.72%63423,3192.30%
Churchill28.85%2,96168.79%7,0612.37%24310,2651.01%
Clark56.42%389,93641.82%289,0531.77%12,201691,19068.10%
Douglas35.65%9,29762.42%16,2761.93%50226,0752.57%
Elko21.96%3,51175.15%12,0142.88%46115,9861.58%
Esmeralda21.15%9272.87%3175.98%264350.04%
Eureka13.24%10782.05%6634.70%388080.08%
Humboldt30.24%1,73766.33%3,8103.43%1975,7440.57%
Lander24.67%53472.98%1,5802.36%512,1650.21%
Lincoln18.59%40078.58%1,6912.83%612,1520.21%
Lyon34.38%7,38062.99%13,5202.63%56521,4652.1%
Mineral42.41%86353.07%1,0804.52%922,0350.20%
Nye36.07%6,32060.30%10,5663.63%63617,5221.72%
Pershing33.55%63261.94%1,1674.51%851,8840.19%
Storey39.76%92057.09%1,3213.15%732,3140.23%
Washoe50.79%95,40947.09%88,4532.13%3,993187,85518.51%
White Pine26.54%98370.22%2,6013.24%1203,7040.36%

Analysis

Nevada has historically been a swing state. It has voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1912, except for 1976. From 1992 to 2004, the margin of victory was always under five points. In 2008, however, the state swung over dramatically to support Obama, who carried it by 12.49%.

In 2012, Obama held onto Nevada, though by a considerably narrower margin of 6.68%. This was due almost entirely to Obama carrying the state's two largest counties--Clark County, home to Las Vegas, and Washoe County, home to Reno. These two counties account for 85 percent of Nevada's population. Romney dominated the state's rural counties, which have supported Republicans for decades. However, the only large jurisdiction he carried was the independent city of Carson City.

As in 2008, Obama owed his victory largely to the state's Hispanic voters breaking heavily for him. According to exit polls, Hispanics made up 19 percent of the electorate and voted for Obama by almost three-to-one.[3]

Democratic caucuses

Incumbent President Barack Obama was not challenged for the Democratic candidacy so no Democratic Primary was held.

Republican caucuses

Nevada Republican caucuses, 2012
Nevada
February 4, 2012 (2012-02-04)

 
Candidate Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich
Home state Massachusetts Georgia
Delegate count 20 0
Popular vote 16,486 6,956
Percentage 50.02% 21.10%

 
Candidate Ron Paul Rick Santorum
Home state Texas Pennsylvania
Delegate count 8 0
Popular vote 6,175 3,277
Percentage 18.73% 9.94%

Nevada results by county
  Mitt Romney
  Newt Gingrich
  Ron Paul

The Republican caucuses were held on February 4[4]and they are closed caucuses,[5] Mitt Romney was declared the winner.[6]

There are 400,310 registered Republicans voting for 28 delegates.[7][8]

Date of caucuses

The 2012 Nevada Republican caucuses were originally scheduled to begin on February 18, 2012,[9] much later than the date in 2008, which almost immediately followed the beginning of the year in January 2008.[10] On September 29, 2011, the entire schedule of caucuses and primaries was disrupted, however, when it was announced that the Republican Party of Florida had decided to move up its primary to January 31, in an attempt to bring attention to its own primary contest, and attract the presidential candidates to visit the state.[11] Because of the move, the Republican National Committee decided to strip Florida of half of its delegates.[12] Also as a result, the Nevada Republican Party, along with Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, then sought to move their caucuses back into early January.[12] All but Nevada, who agreed to follow Florida,[13] confirmed their caucus and primary dates to take place throughout January, with Nevada deciding to hold their contest on February 4, 2012.[14]

The caucuses for 1,835 precincts in 125 sites were scheduled: voting from 9 AM - 1 PM, ballots handling 9-10 AM and to conclude by 3 PM at the latest on February 4, with results for almost all counties to be announced by the party at 5 PM.

Clark County

For Clark County, a special caucus was held at the Adelson Educational Campus at 7 PM, intended to accommodate those who observe Saturday Sabbath.[15] According to Philip Kantor, an Orthodox Jew, the goal of the after-work caucus was to prevent electoral fraud "It has everything to do with not being deprived of a vote, being disenfranchised".[16] This late caucus allowed a timely vote for Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews and other who don't vote until Sabbath is over.[17] Adelson campus caucus attendees were required to sign affidavits stating that they had not already cast their ballot in an earlier caucus, that day.[15] There was only one nationwide televised (by CNN) public vote-count. That Adelson caucus count provided the following Candidate vote results: Ron Paul 181, Mitt Romney 61, Newt Gingrich 57, and Rick Santorum 16 votes. The results of this special caucus were announced Feb 4 near 11 PM. Paul got second place in Clark County, but Gingrich was ahead of Paul by a larger margin in the rest of the state and therefore ended up beating Paul statewide for second place.

Results

Turnout was 8.23%. 1,800 of 1,800 precincts (100%) reporting.[18]
The voting-eligible population (400,310 registered Nevada Republicans).[7]
125 caucus sites.

Nevada Republican caucuses, February 4, 2012[19]
Candidate Votes Percentage Projected delegate count Actual Delegates
[20][21]
AP
[22]
CNN
[23]
MSNBC
[24]
Mitt Romney 16,486 50.02% 14 14 14 20
Newt Gingrich 6,956 21.10% 6 6 6 0
Ron Paul 6,175 18.73% 5 5 5 8
Rick Santorum 3,277 9.94% 3 3 3 0
No Vote 67 0.20% 0 0 0 0
Unprojected delegates: 0 0 0 0
Total: 32,961 100% 28 28 28 28

This final result was announced by Twitter and the Nevada Republican Party on Monday February 6, at 01:01 am PST (local time).[25] The actual Republican National Convention delegates from Nevada are mostly Ron Paul supporters (22 of 28), which were elected by state convention on May 6. The Nevada Republican Party's rules state that most elected delegates to the RNC are still bound to vote for Romney (in the first round of voting), because of Romney's statewide caucuses winning.

Nevada State Convention Delegates May 6, 2012
Candidate Supporters for this candidate who are Delegates from NV to the RNC [26][27][28][29][30][31]
Ron Paul 22
Mitt Romney 6
Totals: 28

Controversy

Allegations of voter fraud have arisen due to a recount of Clark County ballots despite there being no official contest from any of the campaigns. One reason given by the GOP was that there were more ballots cast than people "signed in" at some precincts.[32]

See also

References

  1. Ostermeier, Eric (February 17, 2011). "Meet the New Bellwether States: Ohio and Nevada". Smart Politics.
  2. "Nevada Secretary of State". Retrieved 2012-11-10.
  3. "Nevada Presidential Race". CNN.
  4. Peoples, Steve (2011-10-22). "Nevada Caucus Date: Nevada Moves Date To Feb. 4". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
  5. Nevada Republican - The Green Papers
  6. Barabak, Mark Z. (February 4, 2012). "Mitt Romney cruises to victory in Nevada caucuses". Los Angeles Times.
  7. 1 2 "Voter Registration Statistics: Active Voters by County and Party". Nevada Secretary of State. January 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2012.
  8. Active Voters by Party and Age
  9. Adair, Cory (2010-12-16). "Nevada to Hold Presidential Caucus on February 18, 2012". Nevada Republican Party. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
  10. "Nevada Primary Results". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
  11. Taylor, Steven (2011-09-29). "Florida Moves its Primary". Outside the Beltway. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  12. 1 2 Jacobs, Jennifer (2011-10-25). "GOP chairman: Florida will be penalized, and 2012 race is now set". Des Moines Register. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  13. Nir, David (2011-10-24). "Nevada Republicans cave, move caucuses to Feb. 4". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
  14. "Nevada moves caucus to Feb. 4 after backlash". Associated Press. USA Today. 2011-10-22. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
  15. 1 2 Molly Ball (27 January 2012), "In Nevada, Sheldon Adelson Gets His Very Own Caucus" The Atlantic.
  16. Las Vegas Review Journal Adelson distances himself from GOP special caucus decision
  17. Steinhauser, Paul (February 4, 2012). "Will Nevada Give Romney A Second Straight Victory?". CNN (via wesh.com). Retrieved February 8, 2012.
  18. "NVGOP Caucus Results Certified". Nevada Republican Party. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  19. "AP Results via Google". Google. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
  20. AJC, ""Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 8, 2012. Retrieved May 7, 2012." (May 6, 2012). AJC.
  21. Portland Press Herald, "" (May 7, 2012). Portland Press Herald.
  22. USA Today, "" (February 4, 2012). USA Today.
  23. CNN, "Republican Caucuses" (February 4, 2012). CNN.
  24. MSNBC, "MSNBC Republican Caucuses Archived February 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine." (February 4, 2012). MSNBC.
  25. https://twitter.com/NVVoteCount/status/166446518109356032 @NVVoteCount NV Caucus Results B 00 TOTAL 32963 IN 1800 OF 1800 GIN 6956 PAU 6175 ROM 16486 SAN 3277 NOV 69 (1/1)
  26. "Ron Paul supporters capture majority of Nevada’s national delegates" accessdate=May 8, 2012. LasVegasSun.
  27. "Ron Paul’s stealth state convention takeover" accessdate=May 8, 2012. Washington Post.
  28. "Ron Paul wins big in Maine and Nevada" accessdate=May 8, 2012. ChristianScienceMonitor.
  29. "Ron Paul's Maine, Nevada, and Iowa Victories (Despite Romney Dirty Tricks) accessdate=May 8, 2012. reason.com"
  30. "Libertarians Find Their Audience In 2012 Race" accessdate=May 8, 2012. npr.
  31. "Ron Paul at Nevada State Convention 2012 " accessdate=May 8, 2012. Video of NV convention Speech.
  32. "WLong lines, complaints of election fraud plague special Las Vegas caucus for religious voters". The Washington Post. 5 February 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
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