Early voting is underway in the Silver State, and if the turnout numbers so far are any indication of things to come, Democrats are in for a tough night on November 4.
After only three days, Republicans are leading Democrats by more than 5,100 votes statewide.
“This is not good news for the Democrats since they traditionally win early voting,” David Damore, associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas told me. “If they do not recover by the middle of next week, then I think folks like [Democratic attorney general candidate, Ross] Miller will be in full panic mode.”
In Clark County, where elections are won and lost in the state, the numbers look even grimmer for Democrats.
Republicans have just a 300-vote lead in Clark County. But considering Democrats had a more than 8,000 vote lead over Republicans after the first week of early voting in the 2010 midterm election, the slim early lead this time looks huge for the GOP.
“Clark numbers are looking more than ominous for the Democrats: They look disastrous so far,” political reporter Jon Ralston wrote. “If this keeps up, I don’t know how any of their statewide candidates survive.”
The GOP is far out-performing its registration numbers, while Democrats are under-preforming, not just in Clark but statewide.
So far, Democrats make up about 37 percent of votes cast, while accounting for 40 percent of active voters. The GOP is pulling in 46 percent of early and mail-in ballots compared to statewide registration of nearly 35 percent.
There is a lot of early voting left. But these numbers, coupled with a recent trend finding Republicans waiting until Election Day to cast their ballots, might be the signal of big things to come for the GOP.