Democrats, Republicans neck and neck in election turnout; GOP won Washoe but Angle still lost there

Monday, Dec. 6, 2010 | 11:22 a.m.

Despite making up for a more than 5 percentage point statewide registration deficit and despite winning Washoe County by 6 percentage points, Nevada Republicans still managed to lose the most important race in the country.

A knowledgeable source reports that when the official figures are released, they will show that Democrats and Republicans each turned out just under 300,000 voters, with independents and others making up slightly more than 120,000 of the total electorate. Republicans trail Democrats in active voter registration by 60,000 votes – 471,000-411,000 – so the GOP had its usual, robust midterm election turnout advantage. The registration is 42-37 for the Democrats and it was about 41-41 for the election. But it wasn’t enough as Sharron Angle still lost by 41,000 votes to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

In Washoe County, Angle’s home turf, Republicans turned out in greater numbers – 45 percent to 39 percent – and Angle still lost by 5 percentage points.

In Clark County, where Angle lost by 13 percentage points, Democrats turned out about 40,000 more voters than Republicans, who nevertheless had an 8 percentage point turnout lead relative to registration in the South. But the raw registration numbers – Democrats have a 90,000-voter lead in Southern Nevada – were important.

But what these numbers indicate, most importantly, is that the Reid campaign eroded Angle’s GOP base with its brutal campaign, driving enough independents (just under 13 percent of the total) and moderate Republicans to vote for him, and the Reid turnout operation did its job by losing only 1 percent off its registration in a midterm election.