Figures indicate many registered Republicans voted for Reid
CARSON CITY -- Preliminary figures show just 2,000 more Democrats than Republicans voted in Nevada's general election, the secretary of state's office said Monday.
Because there were 60,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans at the time of the election, the figures are a clear indication that many Republicans cast votes for Democrat U.S. Sen. Harry Reid rather than for his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, a secretary of state spokeswoman said.
Reid, the Senate majority leader, defeated Angle by 41,424 votes in the election, although final polls conducted by the Review-Journal and others had projected a narrow Angle victory.
He even defeated Angle in Washoe County, where there are more registered Republicans than Democrats.
In fact, 8,190 more Republicans than Democrats voted in Washoe County, and Reid still received 7,207 more votes there than Angle, said Pam Dupre of the secretary of state's office.
In Clark County, Reid defeated Angle by 60,101 votes, although the figures released Monday show only 38,606 more registered Democrats than Republicans cast votes there.
Conversely, the vote figures also mean that Republican Brian Sandoval received many votes from registered Democrats in winning the governor's race over Reid's son, Democrat Rory Reid. Sandoval defeated Rory Reid by 84,179 votes.
State Senate Republicans ousted longtime Republican leader Bill Raggio,
R-Reno, as their caucus leader largely because he had endorsed Reid over Angle in the U.S. Senate race. Raggio had led Republicans in the Senate since 1981.
Dupre said the official turnout figures by party registration for all counties, including heavily Republican rural Nevada, will not be released before today .
But she released turnout figures for the two largest counties.
In Clark County, 211,972 registered Democrats, 173,366 Republicans and 60,756 nonpartisans voted in the election.
In Washoe County, 54,342 Democrats, 62,532 Republicans and 17,175 nonpartisan voters cast ballots.
