Early voting remains tight in Nevada, 5 days left

CARSON CITY (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid appears to have gotten a boost from appearances by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, early voting results released Monday show. Although the margins are tight between Democrats and Republicans casting ballots through nine days of early voting, weekend voting pushed Democrats to a narrow lead.

The tallies released by counties and the secretary of state's office showed early voting margins in Nevada remained as tight and unpredictable as polls in the brutal Senate race, while campaigns try to spur voters to the polls in the final sprint to Election Day.

As of Friday, Republicans held the slimmest of margins in early turnout, but over the weekend, Democrats took a 3,000 ballot edge. Only Nevada's two largest counties, Clark and Washoe, had early voting on Saturday and Sunday.

Reid is locked in a race against Sharron Angle, a Republican backed by the tea party.

Reid campaign spokesman Jon Summers said early turnout numbers show Reid is "well positioned to be re-elected."

"We will continue our work to make sure that Nevadans know the choice they face and encourage those who reject Angle's extreme agenda to get out and vote for Sen. Reid," Summers said.

Reid's message resonates with Guadalupe Trujillo, who voted Monday in Las Vegas.

She said she voted early for Reid because she was sick of relentless campaign phone calls.

Trujillo, a Democrat, also said she doesn't believe Angle would represent the Latino community. "I worry about people if she wins," she said.

Jordan Gehrke, Angle's deputy campaign manager, downplayed the voter turnout sea-saw.

"Obviously, they had the president and the vice president of the United States come in last week," Gehrke said. "Of course they're going to get a little bit of a bump."

Gehrke said Republicans and independents are "very enthusiastic in turning out to retire Harry Reid."

Don Harten, a Las Vegas Republican, is one of them.

"I'm so sick of listening to Harry Reid bounce his head off the wall," the 71-year-old retired Air Force pilot said after voting on Monday. "The man is an idiot. He damn well better lose."

Polls have consistently shown the race too close to call.

More than 204,000 Nevadans, or 17 percent of active voters, had already cast ballots through Sunday. Early voting began Oct. 16 and ends Friday.

Democrats hold a 60,000 registration lead in Nevada over the GOP, a slimmer margin than in 2008 when a crush of early voters foretold the victory of President Barack Obama.

But in this election, analysts said trying to predict the outcome of Nevada's hotly contested U.S. Senate race based on early voting numbers is akin to reading tea leaves.

Forecasts of a surge in Republican turnout to deny Reid, the Democratic majority leader, a fifth term so far have not materialized.

"I'm not seeing the enthusiasm gap," said Eric Herzik, political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.

"If I'm the Democrats, this isn't great news but it isn't bad news. If I'm the Republicans, it tells me my people have to show up on Election Day," he said.

In southern Nevada's Clark County, Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly 92,000. Northern Nevada's Washoe County is evenly split, with the other remaining rural counties except for one leaning Republican. The rural counties do not break down daily early turnout numbers by party affiliation.

With the race so close, the 175,000 independent voters will play a big role in the final election outcome.

And then there's Election Day turnout, the ultimate deciding factor.

"We're pulling out all the stops right now," Gehrke said. "Sharron has been a candidate who has finished strong."

Her previous opponents can attest to that.

Robert Uithoven was campaign manager for Sue Lowden, a former state senator and casino executive who was a front-runner until losing the GOP Senate primary to Angle.

"Sue Lowden won in early voting, but the mail-in vote was very close and we got beat on Election Day," he said.

Uithoven predicted that if tallies stay close through early voting, "Harry Reid's probably in trouble."