Ryan in Reno: GOP counting on battleground Nevada

RENO - On the eve of the election, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan on Monday told a cheering crowd of supporters in Reno he's relying on Nevada to help deliver the presidency to Mitt Romney.

"Nevada, we're counting on you," Ryan said, speaking in a hoarse voice at an early morning stop inside an airport hangar. "We know you can do this. We're in this together."

Ryan said President Barack Obama has become the very things he ran against four years ago when he won the Silver State. He said the president has divided people, not brought them together as the Democrat had promised.

Instead of cutting the deficit, Obama has doubled it, raising the debt to $16 trillion, Ryan said. And instead of focusing on creating jobs, he passed a health care reform law that remains unpopular, the Republican added.

More than 23 million Americans remain out of work, he said, with Nevada unemployment at 11.8 percent.

"What we see now is an administration and a presidency littered with broken promises," Ryan told several hundred supporters. "He didn't bring people together. He divided people. He's trying to win by default and we are simply not going to let him get way with it are we? We don't have to settle for this."

The Wisconsin congressman led the crowd chanting, "One more day!" And he urged them to round up neighbors and even extended family they're not fond of to get them to the polls on Tuesday.

Ryan's visit comes as he and Romney barnstorm across the country, hitting key battleground states on the last day of campaigning before the election. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, too, were crisscrossing the country, looking to make their closing arguments about why the Democrats deserve another four years in the White House.

While Ohio, Virginia and Florida are among the top electoral prizes, Nevada's six Electoral College votes could swing the close race if Romney and Obama divide a dozen battleground states between them.

In Nevada, Obama has been leading Romney in pre-election polls. Also, Democrats outpaced Republicans during the two-week early voting period when Nevadans cast more than 700,000 ballots. Democrats accounted for 44 percent of those ballots and Republicans 37 percent with the rest nonpartisan or third parties. Republicans generally turn out in higher numbers on Election Day, however, giving Romney a long-shot hope for an upset here.

U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., also attended the Ryan rally in Reno, where he needs to drive up his voter support in Washoe County in his race against his Democratic challenger Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. Berkley, a seven-term congresswoman from Las Vegas, has stronger backing in populous Clark County.

Heller has been edging Berkley in public polling, but the race is considered a toss-up heading into Tuesday.

Staff and Associated Press reports.