Nevada's GOP caucuses were a chaotic mess, in 4 tweets
Nevada's GOP caucuses were a mess Tuesday night: long lines, loose ballots, voters directed to sites that didn't exist, and volunteers taking ballots while wearing Donald Trump apparel.
Here are some tweets from National Review's Elaina Plott on how chaotic the polls were:
New: People registered for precinct 1303 in Sierra Vista showed up to caucus. There was literally no site set up.
— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) February 24, 2016
Updated quote from source: "40-50 loose ballots on table." Counter looked at them, put them under envelopes. Wouldn't budge when called out.
— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) February 24, 2016
Controversy over voter fraud and misconduct at the polls started to brew when people reported that caucus workers were handing out ballots without checking in voters. Nevada does not require photo identification at the polls, but does require voters to sign in when voting.
Some people claimed that in all the disarray, polling volunteers were forgoing anti-fraud measures, like ensuring ballots were properly collected and accounted for. Mashable's Emily Cahn echoed these concerns, tweeting that caucus-goers were able to vote more than once.
Man here says "it's a disaster." No one is checking in or checking IDs. They're handing out ballots willy nilly. Some guy voted trump twice
— Emily Cahn (@CahnEmily) February 24, 2016
Caucus-goers even shared pictures of caucus personnel taking ballots wearing Trump and Rubio merchandise.
The Nevada Republican Party confirmed that it was not against caucus rules for workers to show their support for a particular candidate. While Nevada's polling volunteers are allowed to wear campaign gear (as long as they don't distribute it), it is not allowed in other states like New York and Florida.
And another caucus volunteer wearing a Trump shirt taking ballots. #tcot pic.twitter.com/W0HdpqD1jR
— Drew Ryun (@DrewRyun) February 24, 2016
Despite all of the contention and allegations of voter misconduct, the Nevada Republican Party tweeted that it did not receive reports of any irregularities or caucus rule violations Tuesday.
This isn't the first time there's been mayhem at the polls in Nevada, a state that only started holding caucuses in 2008 and has had trouble running them smoothly.
In 2012, the Nevada Republican Party took three days to announce who actually won the caucus after only 33,000 people came to the polls.
This year, several political campaigns confirmed that the state's GOP had not kept a list of 2012 caucus-goers, making it difficult to figure out who was going to come out and vote, according to reporting from Politico.
Nevertheless, Tuesday — the first time Republicans in the West voted in the presidential election cycle — saw record numbers at the polls. More than 75,000 voters came out, and overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump, who won the caucus in a blowout. It's not yet clear if the high turnout will save Nevada's status as one of the first states to vote — something that was already at risk before the problems appeared last night.