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.
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.
First Debate Offers Opportunity for Candidates
Tonight’s debate is the first opportunity for the presidential candidates to capture the 88 electoral votes currently unclaimed. Realclearpolitics.com’s Electoral College map shows that if the election were to happen today, Obama would win by an immense gap of 332 votes to 206 votes.
Mitt Romney will need a strong showing in tonight’s debate if he wants to gain any ground on President Barack Obama. According to polls, Obama has a substantial lead in most of the swing states. The only state Romney has a slight edge in is North Carolina. However, even that state is not a guaranteed win for the Republican candidate, as it voted for Obama in 2008.
Nevada Snapshot
Despite having only six electoral votes, Nevada still will be an important swing state in the upcoming presidential election.
As of now, President Barack Obama has led in every public poll in the state this year, but that does not mean he is guaranteed to win. In the four years that Obama has been in office the economy has declined considerably and Nevada is the state with the nation’s highest unemployment and foreclosure rates. That combined with the significant Mormon population in Nevada will help Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s numbers to increase.
However, there also is a high number of Hispanic voters in the state that Obama will likely win over. There is a separate ballot line for former New Mexico governor and possible spoiler Gary Johnson, who is running as a libertarian. Johnson is not well known, but his presence in the election has angered some Republicans as they think he could take away some votes from Romney.
“None of the above” is also an option on the ballot which could work to Obama’s advantage as well. Nevada has given its voters the option to vote “none of the above” since 1976 and is the only state to do so. However, the law states that “none” can never be victorious.
In order to win Nevada, Obama and Romney need to win over its two most populous counties which are Las Vegas’ Clark County and Reno’s Washoe County. Two thirds of Nevada’s population make up Clark County. Obama won both counties comfortably back in 2008.
Nevada has voted for the winner in every presidential election since 1912 except in 1976 when it voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter ,making the state somewhat of an indicator of who may come out on top in the election.
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