Election day turnout close to 25 percent

As primary voting approached a 25 percent turnout Tuesday, those who came to the polls included a Republican candidate seeking to unseat Senate Majority Harry Reid and others in at least one Las Vegas neighborhood who said they wanted to change Reid's four-term dynasty.

U.S. Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian cast his vote about an hour after Clark County's 289 polling stations opened without a hitch at 7 a.m.

Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said almost 20,000 voters had cast ballots by mid-morning. He expected turnout would top 70,000 in the Las Vegas Valley.

At Wasden Elementary School, Tarkanian, 48, pondered his choices for several minutes before leaving to talk to reporters briefly.

"I have a very calm and good feeling that we're going to win the race," he said about the hotly contested primary in which he is running neck-and-neck with Sue Lowden, 58, while Sharron Angle, 60, was leading among the three top candidates.

"It's going to be very close," he said.

Lowden had previously submitted her ballot in early voting and Angle voted in Reno.

They are among a field of 12 candidates competing for the chance to challenge Reid, 70, who's seeking a fifth term in Washington at a time when many voters are unhappy with his leadership.

"I have a lot of people who are after me," Reid told a crowd at the University of Nevada, Reno, in April.

About 15 miles west of where Tarkanian voted with his wife, Amy, two out of three voters who trickled out of the Staton Elementary School polling place in a 10-minute span said they came to oust Reid. The three precincts at Staton account for 3,000 registered voters and more Republicans than Democrats had voted in early and by noon Tuesday.

Amy Maillaro, a Democrat, said the reason she voted was "just to get Reid out." She said voted for Edward "Mr Clean" Hamilton.

Darrell Row, a Republican, said he came "to vote for anybody but Reid. I was voting for the best possible odds to run against Reid."

In the afternoon at Staton, Republican voter Kim Gahagan said she came out "to vote against Harry Reid. I've lived in the state for a year-and-a-half and I haven't liked much of anything he's done."

Gahagan said she voted for Lowden.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.