By MICHELLE L. PRICE, JONATHAN J. COOPER and GABE STERN (Associated Press)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s dueling presidential caucuses and primaries this week are creating confusion among voters, and those who cast ballots in the first contest Tuesday had the option of supporting “none of these candidates.”
Nikki Haley ran in Tuesday’s Republican primary, which won’t count for the GOP nomination, while Donald Trump is the only major candidate in Thursday’s Republican caucuses, which does. The split races have undercut the influence of the third state on the GOP calendar.
It also may have brought a ho-hum approach to Tuesday’s contests, where the day started with lower-than-expected voter turnout. In the first two hours after polls opened, officials said 183 people had voted in person in Washoe County, the state’s second-largest county by population. In Clark County, home to Las Vegas and Nevada’s most-populated county, 2,298 people voted in person during the same two-hour period. Nevada voters also have the option to vote by mail or before election day.
There was also a Democratic primary on Tuesday that President Joe Biden easily won against author Marianne Williamson and a handful of less-known challengers. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota was not on the ballot.
Jeff Turner, 65, came to the Reno Town Mall with a ballot checked off for “none of these candidates” — an option Nevada lawmakers decades ago added in all statewide races, and one that many Trump supporters may choose since the former president and GOP front-runner isn’t on the primary ballot.
Turner’s candidates of choice — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and then businessman Vivek Ramaswamy — also would not have been on the ballot had they stayed in the race, since they opted to participate in Thursday’s caucus. Turner is among those people who lament an increasingly likely rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.
“I think it’s my duty,” Turner said of…
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