Nevada Votes Blue
President Barack Obama won re-election decisively before the results of Nevada even were in Tuesday. Nevada was one of the last states to project a winner and its 6 electoral votes went to President Obama as they did in the 2008 election.
Only two counties in Nevada voted blue, but they were Clark and Washoe counties which are the most populous in the state. President Obama has made several trips to Las Vegas over the last month and it seems that extra campaigning worked to his advantage. In total he made 10 trips to Nevada this year.
Most of the pre-election state polls had Obama with a 2 to 3 point lead in Nevada over Republican nominee Mitt Romney. With 93 percent of the votes in at this time, Obama has a 6 percentage point lead. Obama took Nevada in the 2008 presidential election by 12 points.
Obama Should Take Nevada
The race for president has tightened up in the swing states, but I believe President Obama will take Nevada. Obama has led in nearly all polls for most of the race. His lead was bigger prior to the first debate, but he has maintained a consistent lead since then. Nevada usually votes for the winner and I expect Obama to win this race.
The FiveThirtyEight blog currently has Obama with a 89.5 percent chance of winning. RealClearPolitics only has Obama 2.8 point advantage over Gov. Mitt Romney which is very slim so a win for Obama is not guaranteed by any means. I do believe the high Hispanic population will vote Obama though and that will help him edge out Romney.
Nevada Seeing Many Campaign Ads
There are nine key states still up for grabs in the 2012 presidential election and the two presidential nominees are using advertisements as a way to swing more voters their way.
Nevada, particularly the Las Vegas area, is among the states seeing the most advertisements, according to The Washington Post. Despite Nevada being one of the states seeing the most ads, the cost to air a commercial is not quite as high as a state such as Florida. This is because airtime costs less in places with a lower population, points out The Washington Post.
The National Journal reports that President Barack Obama has spent nearly twice as much money on ads in Nevada as Republican nominee Mitt Romney. They also reported that Obama has spent $20 million in Nevada which may seem like a high amount, but it is only a third of the amount he spent in Florida and Ohio.
Those bothered by the amount of ads in the swing states have only seen one third of the ads for television so far and are about to be bombarded over the next week, according to Ad Week.
Swing State Update: Election Could Be Repeat of 2000
In the 2000 presidential election, former President George W. Bush won the vote of the Electoral College, but lost the popular vote.
Twelve years later, the nation could see the same thing happen again. According to the USA Today, many nationwide and statewide polls indicate that President Barack Obama could win the vote of the Electoral College and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney could win the popular vote.
RealClearPolitics.com has 11 states listed as toss ups at this point. Seven of the toss up states have Obama with a slight lead, which could change at any time. Two are listed as a tie between Obama and Romney.
New Hampshire and Nevada are two of the states that often select the candidate who ends up as president. Both states are leaning towards Obama, according to multiple polls.
But, with just seven days until the election, the presidency is still very much for grabs.
One Major Nevadan Newspaper Endorses Romney
Of the top 100 newspapers based on circulation, The Las Vegas Review-Journal is the one Nevadan newspaper on the list that has chosen a candidate to endorse in the presidential election. It has chosen to support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. This news came out after the first debate between Romney and President Barack Obama, which the general consensus had Romney as the winner.
“The choice is clear. Only Mitt Romney has the principles and experience needed to put America back on the road to prosperity. The Review-Journal endorses Mitt Romney for president of the United States,” stated the Review-Journal in an editorial on October 7.
According to Daily Kos, the Elko Daily Free Press and the Reno Gazette Journal are two smaller newspapers also endorsing Romney, while the Las Vegas Sun and the Reno News & Review are smaller newspapers that have endorsed President Obama.
Nevada Race Still Close
President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney are running an extremely close race in Nevada, according to the Wall Street Journal. Polls from that survey show that Obama has a lead by about 3 percentage points, but there is a 3 point margin for error meaning they could be virtually tied.
Romney has done a lot to repair his image and has gained much ground in the last couple weeks in Nevada, but Obama still has a slight edge which is partially due to his advantage with minority voters.
Nevada Still Up For Grabs
After the final debate last night between President Barack Obama and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, each candidate can now place his focus on the swing states.
Obama recorded a 60-second commercial in which he talks about his economic plans for a second term which will air in the nine states considered swing states, including Nevada.
Romney and his runningmate, Rep. Paul Ryan, took off for Nevada this morning to continue their campaign.
Real Clear Politics has Obama with a slight edge over Romney, but the state is still very much up for grabs. Because Nevada is worth just six electoral votes, the two candidates will have to make a decision on how heavily they will campaign there over the next two weeks.
Nevada Early Vote Turnout
Nevada began early voting on Saturday and as of today, just over 80,000 people have voted, according to the Nevada Secretary of State office.
Of those who voted, half are Democrats whereas just a third of those people are Republicans. The remaining voters are affiliated with different parties. This means it appears that President Barack Obama has the advantage at this time.
About 20,000 more voters have taken advantage of early voting in this election throughout the first two days then did in the 2008 presidential election.
As for absentee/mail-in ballots, Democrats and Republicans are just about even in their turnout with 43 and 41 percent respectively.
BonaSwing 