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Catherine Cortez Masto wins Harry Reid's seat in Nevada

Posted at 4:19 PM, Nov 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-09 03:19:00-05

The Latest on Election Day in Nevada (all times local):

11:13 p.m.

Democrats have reclaimed control of the Nevada Assembly after suffering devastating losses in the 2014 midterm election.

Several Republican incumbents lost seats they'd held in Democratic-leaning districts. GOP Assemblyman Derek Armstrong lost to Democratic lawyer Ozzie Fumo in spite of an unprecedented effort from Uber to save him.

Republican David Gardner is the architect of a reorganization of the Clark County School District, but fell to Democratic lobbyist Steve Yeager.

Democrats took seats held by Republicans Shelly Shelton, Victoria Seaman and Brent Jones, as well as Republican-turned Liberatarian John Moore.

While Republicans held a 25-17 majority last session, they could be in the minority by similar proportions when all races wrap up.

10:40 p.m.

Washoe County voters have approved hiking the local sales tax half a penny to raise $780 million for school improvements in the Reno-Sparks area over the next 10 years.

Backers called the new bonding authority badly needed to help alleviate school overcrowding and a $1.1 billion backlog in capital needs.

Washoe County voters rejected every previous school bond measure put to them over the past 12 years.

This time around, the Coalition to Save Our Schools mounted a $1 million advertising campaign in support of the tax increase, and a district judge shot down a late legal challenge intended to keep the measure off the ballot.

It permanently raises the local sales tax from 7.725 percent to 8.265 percent -- the highest rate in the state.

10:20 p.m.

Nevadans have passed a measure that will exempt medical equipment such as oxygen tanks and hospital beds from the state's sales tax.

Voters gave their blessing to the Medical Patient Tax Relief Act, which is also called Question 4. It must pass a second statewide vote in 2018 before it can become a constitutional amendment.

Supporters say sales tax on the equipment is unnecessary and hits people who are sick or dying, either directly or through indirect, higher insurance premiums.

Opponents argue the proposal is just another giveaway to a special interest group and say public services will take a hit from the lost tax revenue.

The measure was financially backed almost entirely by Bennett Medical Services, a Reno company whose products the measure would exempt from the tax.

10:14 p.m.

Democratic state Sen. Ruben Kihuen has unseated Republican Rep. Cresent Hardy in a solidly Democratic Nevada House district.

The longtime state lawmaker had support from Sen. Harry Reid and the politically formidable Culinary Union. He's a Mexican immigrant who will be Nevada's first Latino congressman.

The swing seat has a double-digit Democratic registration advantage and was held by a Democrat for one term before going Republican in the "red wave" of the 2014 election.

Kihuen's campaign highlighted Hardy's verbal gaffes, opposition to gun control measures and support of Donald Trump, although Hardy revoked his endorsement of the Republican nominee in October.

Hardy and his allies associated Kihuen with "sleaze" after the public relations and lobbying firm where he works was subpoenaed in a corruption investigation targeting a Las Vegas city councilman.

10:07 p.m.

Nevadans have voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

Passage of Ballot Question 2 means Nevadans can possess up to an ounce of pot beginning Jan. 1. A 15 percent excise tax will be levied on the sales, with revenue going to regulate the substance and support education.

Local governments will be allowed to make rules on where marijuana businesses can be located, but won't be allowed to impose blanket bans on the substance.

Nevada voters legalized medical marijuana on the ballot in 2000, but it wasn't until 2013 that the state Legislature passed a law allowing for dispensaries.

Under the new law, only business that have medical pot certificates will be allowed to apply for recreational licenses for the first 18 months.

 

10:04 p.m.

Nevada voters have approved a measure that aims to break up NV Energy's monopoly and open the electricity market to more competitors.

Voters gave the greenlight to the Energy Choice Initiative, which is also called Question 3. It must pass a second consecutive vote in 2018 before it can become a constitutional amendment.

The measure calls on lawmakers to create a framework for deregulating the state's electrical market and ending the utility company's legal monopoly. It came as large companies including casinos sought to leave NV Energy and find their own providers, but chafed at high exit fees imposed by regulators.

Data center company Switch and the Las Vegas Sands casino company were the primary financial backers.

Opponents included the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Nevada State AFL-CIO.

9:23 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won a presidential contest in Nevada that was seen as tighter than in most other swing states.

Clinton picks up six electoral votes in the victory.

The Democratic nominee started building up her formidable campaign organization in Nevada in the spring of 2015. It propelled her to a solid win in the Nevada caucuses in spite of an energetic challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

She and her allies blanketed the airwaves with commercials in English and Spanish and kept a regular stream of entertainers and high-level political surrogates flowing into the state to keep up momentum.

Trump's Nevada campaign subsisted on huge, blowout rallies and swelled turnout numbers at the state's caucuses. But it lacked the consistency and sophistication of Clinton's machine.

9:14 p.m.

Catherine Cortez Masto has won a nail biter Nevada Senate race and will keep the seat of retiring Sen. Harry Reid in Democratic hands.

The two-term former Nevada attorney general triumphed over three-term Republican Rep. Joe Heck in one of the handful of contests that decides which party controls the U.S. Senate.

The 52-year-old Cortez Masto will be the first Latina in the U.S. Senate.

The race attracted mountains of outside cash from donors including the billionaire Koch brothers, who have a long-running feud with Reid and sought the symbolic victory of wresting his seat from the Democratic Party. Heck allies sought to portray Cortez Masto as corrupt during her time as the state's top prosecutor.

Her campaign framed her as a "bipartisan problem solver" independent of the polarizing Reid.

8:57 p.m.

Republican Rep. Mark Amodei has easily won his bid for re-election in a conservative House district that includes Reno and rural northern Nevada.

Amodei faced his most serious challenger yet in Democratic talk radio host Chip Evans, but had a steep advantage in the district's 11-point Republican registration edge.

Amodei is a Carson City native and former state lawmaker who's been in Congress since 2011. He served as Donald Trump's Nevada state campaign chairman.

Evans ran TV ads criticizing Amodei for missing votes in Congress and supporting the divisive Republican nominee.

Amodei condemned some of Trump's lewd comments, but said he stood by him in the name of party unity. His own campaign message was that "Amodei Delivers" legislation that helps Nevadans, and that Evans didn't have concrete policy plans.
 

8:30 p.m.

A GOP election watch party in Las Vegas is growing louder and louder as Donald Trump racks up more and more victories.

The Republican crowd at the South Point Casino erupted into cheers Tuesday when Trump was declared the winner of Ohio and started chanting "Florida!" before that state was called for the GOP nominee.

Attendee Rick Boulanger repeated Trump's refrain that it's time to "drain the swamp."

The mood at a Democratic party at the Aria resort on the Las Vegas Strip on Tuesday was tense and nervous as Hillary Clinton's path to victory narrowed before their eyes.

Attendee Oscar Aragon said his 11-year-old daughter can't afford to have Trump as president. He said that as a Hispanic, Trump thinks his family isn't worthy of being in the country.

8:20 p.m.

Democratic Rep. Dina Titus has coasted to re-election in an urban Las Vegas district where her party has a two-to-one voter registration advantage.

Titus defeated poorly funded Republican candidate Mary Perry and several other little-known independent and minor party candidates to win a third term.

Titus didn't have to campaign much for herself, but was an active supporter of Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Catherine Cortez Masto, who wanted strong support among the high number of Latino voters in her district.

She's a former longtime state lawmaker and served one term in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District before it went Republican.

8:10 p.m.

Voting is completed in Nevada, with no major voting glitches reported.

An aide to the secretary of state and a Clark County election spokesman say the last polling places closed about 8 p.m. in the Las Vegas area.

Washoe County Registrar of Voters Luanne Cutler says the last of the 86 polling sites in and around Reno closed at 7:45 p.m.

Ballot sites remained open in some areas to accommodate people still in line when polls officially closed at 7 p.m.

 

 

7:30 p.m.

Some polling places are still open to accommodate lines in the Las Vegas area, but a spokesman for the registrar of voters says the queues aren't long.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin didn't say which ballot spots are still open.

Polls officially closed in Nevada at 7 p.m., but state and local officials say anyone already in line is expected to be able to vote.

7:10 p.m.

Polls are officially closed in Nevada, but anyone already in line is expected to be able to cast ballots in the swing state.

Nevada is playing a key role in deciding whether Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump will become president.

A spokeswoman for the Secretary of State says there weren't any immediate reports of long lines around the state when polling places closed at 7 p.m.

Voters are also deciding a highly competitive race to replace U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, and perhaps which party holds the Senate majority.

Just over half the state's 1.5 million active registered voters cast ballots through early or absentee voting.

The Secretary of State reports that by 5 p.m., more than 1 million votes had been cast early and on Election Day.

Democrats had a 6-point lead over Republicans in early turnout, but Republicans traditionally outperform Democrats on Election Day.
 

2:10 p.m.

No complaints were filed by Democrats who had alleged that Republican and Donald Trump poll-watchers and exit-pollers would harass voters in Nevada, so a federal judge in Las Vegas canceled a hearing he tentatively set for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware set the time on Monday, after rejecting calls by Democrats for court orders against the Trump campaign, adviser Roger Stone and his group "Stop the Steal."

The campaign and Stone's group told the judge that volunteers were specifically advised what they could and couldn't do at voting sites.

That included not talking with people within 100 feet of a polling place, and not photographing or using video or audio to record people without that person's permission.

1:10 p.m.

Election officials in Las Vegas say people were allowed to cast ballots on the last day of early voting until the lines stopped.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin says the practice has for many years been to keep taking voters until no one is in line.

Kulin says some polls remained open past their 8 p.m. Friday posted closing time, and the last vote was cast at one site at 10:10 p.m.

The Donald Trump campaign has filed a complaint with the Nevada Secretary of State alleging that keeping polls open past posted closing time violates the integrity of the election.

But the campaign lost a bid to get a state court judge in Las Vegas to issue a court order to preserve records about ballots cast after posted closings at four locations in the Las Vegas area.

The campaign says allowing people to vote past closing time was illegal, but the county says they were accommodating people already in line.

12:20 p.m.

A state court judge in Nevada denied a request from the Donald Trump campaign to issue a court order to preserve names of poll workers for a complaint about what the campaign calls early voting irregularities.

Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman said Tuesday that making the names part of the court record could expose the workers to possible "public attention, ridicule and harassment."

She says the county registrar is already required to keep the records, and the Nevada Secretary of State is responsible for investigating the complaint.

Trump campaign attorney Brian Hardy told the judge he wants to preserve records about late ballots on the last day of early voting at four locations in the Las Vegas area.

The campaign says allowing people to vote past closing time was illegal, but the county says they were accommodating people already in line.

Neither side commented outside the courtroom.

11:50 a.m.

The Donald Trump campaign says allowing early voting sites to stay open past closing time in the Las Vegas area was an "egregious violation of election law."

Nevada state campaign director Charles Munoz said in a statement the suit describes multiple incidents where election law was broken, including one where a county employee allowed people to vote even though the lines had been cleared and closure announcements had been made.

County officials have said there was no formal extension of closing time, but elections officials often keep sites open to accommodate all voters in line.

The Trump campaign is suing Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria and asking a judge to order the ballots impounded and segregated.

A spokesman for Clark County says it already preserves its early-voting records as required by state law.

11:30 a.m.

Officials in Las Vegas are responding to a lawsuit from the Donald Trump campaign claiming polling places stayed open too late during early voting.

Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said in a statement Tuesday the complaint would require them to preserve voting records, and they're already doing that as required by state law.

Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time last Friday at a Mexican market and several shopping centers, including one in southeast Las Vegas where officials say the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.

State Republican party chief Michael McDonald has also criticized the process, but Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign calls the suit frivolous.

10:55 a.m.

The Donald Trump campaign has filed complaints in Nevada alleging polling place "anomalies" during early voting in the Las Vegas area.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in state court in Las Vegas asks a judge to order the Clark County registrar of voters to impound and preserve records from four voting spots that complaints say stayed open too late last Friday.

A morning hearing is scheduled in Clark County District Court on the filing, which refers to a voting irregularities complaint filed with the Nevada Secretary of State.

Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time at sites including a Mexican market and several shopping centers, including one in southeast Las Vegas where officials say the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.

State Republican party chief Michael McDonald has also criticized the process.

A lawyer for Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign dismissed the legal action in Nevada with a Tweet calling it "a frivolous lawsuit."

10:45 a.m.

Immigrant advocates in Las Vegas are walking Latino neighbors to get Hispanics who haven't voted yet to the polls.

The group Immigrant Voters Win PAC sent a mariachi group to an eastern Las Vegas home on Tuesday to make sure 20-year-old Jacqueline Lima voted.

Mariachi Vegas Internacional serenaded Lima and her 4-year-old sister, Karla, as they walked to Halle Hewetson Elementary School to vote in the mostly Latino neighborhood.

Lima said she was honored to get a serenade as she went to vote for the first time.

Raul Sosa, a bass guitarist with the mariachi group, also voted for the first time this year.

Both said they voted for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and feared Republican Donald Trump's immigration proposals.

9:35 a.m.

Officials say morning voting is generally running smoothly at Nevada polling sites.

Secretary of State Spokeswoman Gail Anderson said the office hadn't gotten reports of major problems around the state as of midmorning Tuesday.

The Review-Journal reports the line at the Rainbow Library in Las Vegas slowed to a crawl early because there weren't enough electronic cards available to run all the voting machines there, but the site was back up to full strength by 9 a.m.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m. Nevada voters are playing a big role this year as they decide where the swing state will fall in the presidential election.

They'll also choose a replacement for Sen. Harry Reid in a race that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

8:45 a.m.

Las Vegas voter Ricardo Lara says he's anxious to cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton because he said Donald Trump doesn't like Mexicans like him. Lara is originally from Mexico but has lived in the U.S. for 14 years and works for a contractor at a nearby Air Force Base.

The 42-year-old man had trouble finding parking Friday at the crowded Cardenas market early voting site. It was shut down before he was able to cast a ballot, so he planned to vote Tuesday.

His wife Laura waited for him outside the Mexican grocery store but couldn't get her citizenship in time to vote.

"It's not fear," he said in Spanish about the prospect of Trump becoming president, "but I don't like it. Not for myself, but for the people who don't have papers."

7 a.m.

Polls have opened around Nevada with voters in the swing state expected to play an outsized role when they decide whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump should get their six coveted electoral votes.

Nevada polling places opened at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m. Voters will also weigh in on a highly competitive race to replace Sen. Harry Reid that could determine which party holds the Senate majority.

Just over half of Nevada's 1.5 million active registered voters have already cast ballots through early or absentee voting. Democrats have a six-point lead over Republicans in early turnout, but Republicans think they can overcome that deficit on Election Day, when they traditionally outperform Democrats.

Democrats hope anti-Trump sentiment will motivate voters who will also help them clinch two competitive U.S. House seats in Nevada.