What happened in Nevada?

[brentspeak]

46,000 people voted for someone other than the Republican and Democrat in the gubernatorial race (Democratic candidate Dina Titus lost), and Hafen, the Democrat, lost out to Porter, the Republican, by 3,900 votes when 10,400 voters went 3rd party.

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/elections/2006/NV.html
Governor
Votes %
(Repub) Gibbons 277,855 48%
(Dem) Titus 254,920 44%
(Independents) 20,619 4%
(Independent American party) Hansen 19,966 3%
(Green) Bergland 6,731 1%
100% Reporting

District 3 Votes %
(Repub) Porter 102,176 48%
(Dem) Hafen 98,210 47%
(Independent) Hansen 5,326 3%
(Libertarian) Silvestri 5,155 2%
100% Reporting

[clichemoth]

1. They were taking away Republican votes.

With the exception of the Green in the gubernatorial, these other candidates were all on the right, AFAIK. Without them, the Repigs would have won by more.

Remember, Nevada also has "None of the Above" and that tends to skew things. I wonder what they'd do if None of the Above ever won.

[Awsi Dooger]

3. The NYT did a very poor job with the listing

Correct, the damn 20,000+ votes listed as "Independent" in the gov race was actually "None of These," the inane option we have in Nevada in statewide races. I'm convinced it works against us.

The Green candidate in the gov race directed his supporters to vote for Titus a day or two before the election, but he didn't exactly get much press in that regard, plus two weeks of early voting were already in the books.

Overall, as clichemoth indicates, the third party votes would have favored the Republicans.

At least the 2006 Nevada results might stem the nonsense on progressive sites that Nevada is turning reliably blue. I've been here since the '80s and have no idea where that comes from. Hispanic levels have spiked but not in equivalent level to voting percentage. It's 25% Hispanics in Clark County but barely 10% of the voters. Most of the missing are not citizens, or not yet 18. The calendar works in our favor on the latter, but young voters are the least dependable anyway, once they do turn 18.

Clark County had very disappointing turnout this year, lower than 2002. Particularly in NV-1, the heartland of Democratic support in this state. Rurals always show up in greater percentage in Nevada midterms and that held true again.

[NJ Democrats]

2. Wasn't there also several thousand votes for

none of the above?