Feb. 6 (UPI) — Nevadans are voting Tuesday in the presidential preference primary, but the stakes differ between Republicans and Democrats.
Twenty-six delegates are at stake in the Democratic primary, taking place days after Biden won all 55 delegates in the South Carolina primary. It was the first primary to award delegates to the incumbent after the Democratic National Convention has not agreed to seat delegates from the New Hampshire primary last month.
Nevada polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. PST. Early voting began on Jan. 27.
Nearly 4,000 people cast early votes on opening day, including 2,876 voters in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located. Democratic primary votes accounted for 1,870 of Clark County’s day-one voters along with 1,006 in the Republican primary.
Through Friday, 23,692 early votes had been cast. More than 60% were cast in the Democratic primary.
There are 689,949 registered voters in the county. This includes 318,333 Democrats, 229,369 Republicans, 27,620 independents and 107,629 non-partisans.
Biden also won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, even though he was not on the ballot.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is the only Republican candidate actively campaigning who is on the ballot in the Republican primary. The Republican Party is not seating delegates from Nevada’s primary. It will only recognize delegates won in the caucus taking place on Thursday.
The Nevada Republican Party ruled that candidates cannot participate in both the primary and caucus. This means Haley is not eligible to take part in Thursday’s caucus with former President Donald Trump and pastor Ryan Binkley.