See main article: article and 2012 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 2012 United States presidential election in Nevada |
| Country: | Nevada |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 United States presidential election in Nevada |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 United States presidential election in Nevada |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Election Date: | November 6, 2012 |
| Image1: | President Barack Obama, 2012 portrait crop.jpg |
| Nominee1: | Barack Obama |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | Illinois |
| Running Mate1: | Joe Biden |
| Electoral Vote1: | 6 |
| Popular Vote1: | 531,373 |
| Percentage1: | 52.36% |
| Nominee2: | Mitt Romney |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Massachusetts |
| Running Mate2: | Paul Ryan |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 463,567 |
| Percentage2: | 45.68% |
| Map Size: | 275px |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Barack Obama |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Barack Obama |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
The 2012 United States presidential election in Nevada took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. State 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 was won by President Barack Obama with 52.36% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 45.68%, a 6.68% margin of victory.[1] In 2008, Obama won the state by 12.50%. Nevada has voted for the winner in every presidential election from 1912 onwards, except in 1976 when it voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter and in 2016 when it voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Carson City, which voted for Obama in 2008, flipped to supporting the Republican Party this election cycle. Despite only winning two counties (Clark and Washoe), these counties consist of over 87% of Nevada's population and are home to Las Vegas and Reno, the largest and third largest cities in the state, thus allowing Obama to win by a comfortable margin.[2]
Incumbent president Barack Obama was not challenged for the Democratic candidacy, so no Democratic caucuses were held.
See main article: Republican Party presidential primaries.
| Election Name: | 2012 Nevada Republican caucuses |
| Country: | Nevada |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 Nevada Republican caucuses |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 Nevada Republican caucuses |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Outgoing Members: | FL |
| Elected Members: | CO |
| Image1: | Mitt_Romney_by_Gage_Skidmore_6_cropped.jpg |
| Candidate1: | Mitt Romney |
| Home State1: | Massachusetts |
| Delegate Count1: | 20 |
| Popular Vote1: | 16,486 |
| Percentage1: | 50.02% |
| Map Size: | 220px |
| Image4: | Newt Gingrich by Gage Skidmore 3 (cropped).jpg |
| Candidate4: | Newt Gingrich |
| Home State4: | Georgia |
| Delegate Count4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 6,956 |
| Percentage4: | 21.10% |
| Candidate2: | Ron Paul |
| Home State2: | Texas |
| Delegate Count2: | 8 |
| Popular Vote2: | 6,175 |
| Percentage2: | 18.73% |
| Image5: | Rick Santorum by Gage Skidmore.jpg |
| Candidate5: | Rick Santorum |
| Home State5: | Pennsylvania |
| Delegate Count5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 3,277 |
| Percentage5: | 9.94% |
| Color1: | ff6600 |
| Color4: | 800080 |
| Color2: | ffcc00 |
| Color5: | 008000 |
The Republican caucuses were held on February 4,[3] and they are closed caucuses.[4] Mitt Romney was declared the winner.[5]
There are 400,310 registered Republicans voting for 28 delegates.[6] [7]
The 2012 Nevada Republican caucuses were originally scheduled to begin on February 18, 2012,[8] much later than the date in 2008, which almost immediately followed the beginning of the year in January 2008.[9] 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.[10] Because of the move, the Republican National Committee decided to strip Florida of half of its delegates.[11] 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. All but Nevada, who agreed to follow Florida,[12] confirmed their caucus and primary dates to take place throughout January, with Nevada deciding to hold their contest on February 4, 2012.[13]
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.
For Clark County, a special caucus was held at the Adelson Educational Campus at 7 PM, intended to accommodate those who observe Saturday Sabbath.[14] 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".[15] This late caucus allowed a timely vote for Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews and other who don't vote until Sabbath is over.[16] Adelson campus caucus attendees were required to sign affidavits stating that they had not already cast their ballot in an earlier caucus, that day. There was only one nationwide televised (by CNN) public vote-count.[17] That Adelson caucus count provided the following Candidate vote results: Ron Paul 183, Mitt Romney 61, Newt Gingrich 57, and Rick Santorum 16 votes.[18] The results of this special caucus were announced Feb 4.[19] 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.[20]
Turnout was 8.23%. 1,800 of 1,800 precincts (100%) reporting.[21]
The voting-eligible population (400,310 registered Nevada Republicans).
125 caucus sites.
Delegates were awarded to candidates who got 3.57% or more of the vote proportionally
| Nevada Republican caucuses, February 4, 2012[22] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Projected delegate count | Actual Delegates [23] [24] | |||
| AP [25] | CNN [26] | MSNBC [27] | |||||
| 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 | |
| Nevada State Convention Delegates May 6, 2012 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Supporters for this candidate who are Delegates from NV to the RNC [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] | ||||
| Ron Paul | 22 | ||||
| Mitt Romney | 6 | ||||
| Totals: | 28 | ||||
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.[35]
Throughout the race, Barack Obama tied or won every single pre-election poll except one. The final poll showed Obama leading 51% to 47%, while the average of the last 3 polls showed Obama leading Romney 50% to 47%.[36]
| 2012 United States presidential election in Nevada[37] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | ||
| Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 531,373 | 52.36% | 6 | ||
| Republican | Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | 463,567 | 45.68% | 0 | ||
| Libertarian | 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% | |||||
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Mitt Romney Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
| Carson City | 10,291 | 44.13% | 12,394 | 53.15% | 634 | 2.72% | -2,103 | -9.02% | 23,319 | ||||||||||
| Churchill | 2,961 | 28.85% | 7,061 | 68.79% | 243 | 2.36% | -4,100 | -39.94% | 10,265 | ||||||||||
| Clark | 389,936 | 56.42% | 289,053 | 41.82% | 12,201 | 1.76% | 100,883 | 14.60% | 691,190 | ||||||||||
| Douglas | 9,297 | 35.65% | 16,276 | 62.42% | 502 | 1.93% | -6,979 | -26.77% | 26,075 | ||||||||||
| Elko | 3,511 | 21.96% | 12,014 | 75.15% | 461 | 2.89% | -8,503 | -53.19% | 15,986 | ||||||||||
| Esmeralda | 92 | 21.15% | 317 | 72.87% | 26 | 5.98% | -225 | -51.72% | 435 | ||||||||||
| Eureka | 107 | 13.24% | 663 | 82.05% | 38 | 4.71% | -556 | -68.81% | 808 | ||||||||||
| Humboldt | 1,737 | 30.24% | 3,810 | 66.33% | 197 | 3.43% | -2,073 | -36.09% | 5,744 | ||||||||||
| Lander | 534 | 24.67% | 1,580 | 72.98% | 51 | 2.35% | -1,046 | -48.31% | 2,165 | ||||||||||
| Lincoln | 400 | 18.59% | 1,691 | 78.58% | 61 | 2.83% | -1,291 | -59.99% | 2,152 | ||||||||||
| Lyon | 7,380 | 34.38% | 13,520 | 62.99% | 565 | 2.63% | -6,140 | -28.61% | 21,465 | ||||||||||
| Mineral | 863 | 42.41% | 1,080 | 53.07% | 92 | 4.52% | -217 | -10.66% | 2,035 | ||||||||||
| Nye | 6,320 | 36.07% | 10,566 | 60.30% | 636 | 3.63% | -4,246 | -24.23% | 17,522 | ||||||||||
| Pershing | 632 | 33.55% | 1,167 | 61.94% | 85 | 4.51% | -535 | -28.39% | 1,884 | ||||||||||
| Storey | 920 | 39.76% | 1,321 | 57.09% | 73 | 3.15% | -401 | -17.33% | 2,314 | ||||||||||
| Washoe | 95,409 | 50.79% | 88,453 | 47.09% | 3,993 | 2.12% | 6,956 | 3.70% | 187,855 | ||||||||||
| White Pine | 983 | 26.54% | 2,601 | 70.22% | 120 | 3.24% | -1,618 | -43.68% | 3,704 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 531,373 | 52.36% | 463,567 | 45.68% | 19,978 | 1.97% | 67,806 | 6.68% | 1,014,918 | ||||||||||
Obama won 3 of 4 congressional districts, including one that elected a Republican.[38]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65.64% | 32.4% | Dina Titus | |||
| 44.82% | 52.88% | Mark Amodei | |||
| 49.53% | 48.73% | ||||
| 54.43% | 43.71% | Steven Horsford | |||
Nevada has historically been a swing state. It has voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1912, except for 1976 and 2016. 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 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 Henderson, and Washoe County, home to Reno. These two counties account for 85% 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 in part to the state's Hispanic voters breaking heavily for him. According to exit polls, Hispanics made up 19% of the electorate and voted for Obama by almost three-to-one.[39]
for Nevada
Major state elections in chronological order