LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Latest on Tuesday’s midterm election in Nevada (all times local):
12:50 a.m.
Nevadans have passed a measure granting tax exemption for prescription medical equipment such as oxygen tanks, sleep apnea monitors, wheelchairs and hospital beds.
Nearly three-fourths of voters gave the measure initial approval in 2016. But as a constitutional amendment, it required a second statewide vote, which it received on Tuesday.
Supporters called taxes on medical equipment unfair to sick, injured or dying Nevadans who pay directly or through higher insurance premiums.
Opponents argued that basic budget principles mean the state can’t afford giveaways and that public services will be hurt by lost tax revenue.
The measure had financial backing from Bennett Medical Services, a Reno company with products that will be exempt from taxes. Company owner Douglas Bennett launched the initiative after the idea failed in the state Legislature.
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12:43 a.m.
Democrat Jacky Rosen says she’s humbled by her win over incumbent Republican Dean Heller in the U.S. Senate race in Nevada.
Rosen took the stage at a Nevada Democratic Party event at Caesars Palace, where she once worked as a waitress four decades ago.
She said President Donald Trump had said he was on the ballot in the election and she was “really proud to say that Nevada responded accordingly.”
Rosen says she wants to work in getting a $15 an hour minimum wage, ease college loan debt for students and pass “common-sense gun safety legislation.”
The first-term congresswoman and former computer programmer becomes Nevada’s second female senator and second Democratic senator.
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12:29 a.m.
Nevada voters have approved making voter registration automatic when a person applies for a driver’s license or identification card.
Question 5 passed Tuesday to change what amounted to an opt-in system at the state Department of Motor Vehicles to an opt-out rule. That means a person will have to check a box to decline voter registration.
If a person is already registered to vote, his or her voter registration information will be automatically updated.
A 2016 petition drive led the Legislature to approve the law, with Democrats and Republicans voting on party lines.
Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed it, saying voters should decide for themselves whether to register, not the government.
Proponents including the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada spent about $10 million on the campaign.
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12:25 a.m.
Nevadans have advanced an initiative to speed the pace and raise the bar on the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources in one of the nation’s sunniest states.
Question 6 won initial approval Tuesday but must pass again in 2020 to take effect. It aims to amend the state constitution to raise the minimum amount of power that electric utilities generate or acquire from solar, wind or geothermal sources to 50 percent in 2030.
The current benchmark is 25 percent by 2025. The state’s dominant electric utility, NV Energy, says it already has a 24 percent clean-energy portfolio.
Proponents have been underwritten by California billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer, founder of the group NextGen Climate Action.
Opponents say free-market forces and the Legislature should set the state standard.
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12:18 a.m.
Democrat Jacky Rosen has defeated incumbent Republican Dean Heller in a hard-fought battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, giving Democrats a key pickup in the chamber.
Rosen on Tuesday ousted Heller, who has been in office since he was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2011.
Heller was considered the most vulnerable Republican running for re-election to the U.S. Senate this year as the only one seeking another term in a state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016. He conceded earlier in the night.
Heller was once a critic of President Donald Trump, but the two have become allies. Rosen painted Heller as a rubber stamp for the president and counted on backlash to Trump to help her oust the incumbent.
Rosen’s win puts Nevada with half a dozen other states represented by U.S. senators who are both female. Nevada’s other senator is Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.
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12:14 a.m.
Nevada voters have approved a ballot measure to embed crime victims’ rights in the state constitution.
Question 1 passed on Tuesday. It was described by backers as Marsy’s Law for Nevada.
The name refers to a 2008 law enacted by voters in California with support from billionaire Henry Nicholas in memory of his slain sister, Marsalee “Marsy” Nicholas. She was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983.
The Nevada measure was approved by the state Legislature in 2015 and 2017. It expands the definition of a victim and lists 16 rights including privacy, protection from a defendant, refusal of interview or deposition requests without a court order, notice of court and parole hearings and “full and timely restitution.”
Opponents called the proposal redundant, costly and vague.
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12:10 a.m.
Nevada voters have rejected a hotly contested and expensive ballot initiative that backers characterized as open-market energy choice, while opponents led by the state’s dominant electric utility said would lead to dangerous deregulation.
The failure of Question 3 on Tuesday was a victory for utility company NV Energy and a defeat for proponents led by casino company Las Vegas Sands and data storage firm Switch.
Nearly $100 million was spent on the constitutional amendment after nearly three-fourths of voters first approved it in 2016.
Proponents wanted the Legislature to strip NV Energy of its electricity production and sales monopoly, and to create a “competitive retail energy market” by July 2023.
Opponents argued deregulation would drive up rates. The Public Utilities Commission said ratepayers could be liable for billions in costs.
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12:01 a.m.
Republican Dean Heller says he takes the blame for his loss to Democrat Jacky Rosen in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race.
Heller said in a concession speech in Las Vegas that Rosen and the Democratic Party had a great race up and a “blue wave” all down the ballot in Nevada.
He says his party is going to have to “come back together” and decide how it’s going to go forward.
The senator says it’s the first time he’s had to call his opponent and make a concession call in three decades.
He cited the 2017 GOP tax law he helped write and the confirmation of judges to the U.S. Supreme Court as “generational changes” he was proud of achieving while in office.
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11:59 p.m.
Republican Adam Laxalt has conceded Nevada governor’s race to Democrat Steve Sisolak.
The Associated Press has not called race, which has drawn millions in outside spending and was considered a high-stakes battle for both parties.
The 64-year-old Sisolak repeatedly campaigned on a pledge to stand up to President Donald Trump, who backed Laxalt.
Sisolak chairs the Clark County Commission, which oversees the Las Vegas Strip and surrounding areas. He rose to prominence following the 2017 mass shooting on the Strip, starting an online fundraiser that amassed millions for victims.
Nevada’s gubernatorial race was considered a top priority for Democrats looking to flip control of governors’ mansions across the country Tuesday.
Popular and moderate Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval is term-limited.
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11:54 a.m.
Republican Sen. Dean Heller has conceded to Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen in a battleground race for U.S. Senate in Nevada.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race.
Heller has been in office since he was appointed to fill a vacancy in 2011.
He was considered the most vulnerable Republican running for re-election to the U.S. Senate this year as the only one seeking another term in a state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016.
Heller was once a critic of President Donald Trump, but the two have become allies. Rosen painted Heller as a rubber stamp for the president and counted on backlash to Trump to help her oust the incumbent.
Rosen’s win puts Nevada with half a dozen other states represented by U.S. senators who are both female. Nevada’s other senator is Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.
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11:45 p.m.
Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei (AM’-uh-day) has won again in a mostly rural district that no Democrat has ever represented.
Democratic challenger Clinton Koble picked up several labor endorsements but was outspent in the campaign by a 9-to-1 margin.
The 60-year-old Amodei is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
It’s the safest GOP seat in the western battleground state where two open seats are up for grabs.
Amodei has represented the district created in 1982 since he won a special election in 2011. Last time, he claimed 58 percent of the vote in the district that covers most of northern Nevada including Reno and Carson City.
A Carson City native, Amodei is the former chairman of the Nevada Republican Party who served in the Legislature for 13 years.
Koble is an Obama-era appointee to the U.S. Agriculture Department.
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11:31 p.m.
Democrat Steven Horsford has defeated Republican and fellow former Congressman Cresent Hardy in the battle for an open congressional seat that was considered key to Democrats’ bid to take control of the U.S. House.
Horsford won Tuesday in the 4th District, which includes the outskirts of Las Vegas and several rural counties in southern Nevada.
The incumbent, Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen (KEE-hune), decided to forgo a re-election bid amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
The 45-year-old Horsford became the first African-American to represent Nevada in Congress when he won the seat in 2012.
The 61-year-old Hardy defeated him in 2014 then lost in 2016 to Kihuen.
It was one of two open House seats up for grabs in the western battleground state. Democrat Hillary Clinton carried Nevada in her loss to President Donald Trump in the last election.
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11:25 p.m.
Democrat Susie Lee has defeated Republican Danny Tarkanian in a key battle for an open U.S. House seat in the western swing state of Nevada.
Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen previously represented southern Nevada’s 3rd District but left to challenge Republican Sen. Dean Heller.
Lee is a 51-year-old Las Vegas philanthropist who raises money for education and disadvantaged women. She raised $4.5 million and outspent Tarkanian by a 2-to-1 margin.
The 56-year-old Tarkanian is the son of legendary UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian. Danny Tarkanian lost to Rosen by fewer than 4,000 votes in 2016.
Tarkanian launched a bid earlier this year to knock off Heller in the GOP Senate primary but backed off under pressure from President Donald Trump and others.
Lee lost in the 2016 primary to Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen (KEE-hune) in the neighboring 4th District.
11:23 p.m.
Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus (DEE’-nuh TEYE’-tuss) has won re-election to a fourth term, cruising to victory over Republican Joyce Bentley in the heavily Democratic 1st District covering most of Las Vegas.
The 68-year-old Titus is a longtime political science professor. She served a term in the neighboring 3rd District before first winning her current seat in 2012.
Bentley is a former Las Vegas businesswoman and real estate agent who didn’t report raising any money for her general election campaign.
10:06 p.m.
A state election official says the last voter has cast a ballot and Election Day has ended in Nevada, nearly 3 hours after polls were scheduled to close.
Deputy Nevada Secretary of State Wayne Thorley says lines were longest in Washoe County, where voting ended at just before 10 p.m. Tuesday at an unspecified polling place.
Voting ended about 30 minutes earlier in Lyon and Clark counties, where people who arrived in line before 7 p.m. at polling places at malls and schools were allowed to remain in line to vote. Others were turned away.
Thorley says preliminary election results will begin being released soon.
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10:05
Nevada Democrats are cheering the party’s success in picking up U.S. House seats Election Day.
The crowd gathered for an election night celebration in a ballroom at a Las Vegas Strip casino-resort is cheering every time a TV shows Democrats have knocked off several Republican incumbents.
William McCurdy II is chairman of the Nevada Democratic Party. He says Nevada’s ballot this year had the “strongest Democratic ticket we have seen.”
Republicans, however, have already secured control of the U.S. Senate for two more years.
McCurdy told the crowd U.S. Sen. Dean Heller has “sold us out” in the name of his donors and the Republican Party.
Heller is being challenged by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen. He is the only GOP senator seeking another term in a state Hillary Clinton won.
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10 p.m.
Republican Adam Laxalt is watching election returns with his family in a room at a Reno hotel-casino while hundreds of his supporters gather in a ballroom for what they hope will be the gubernatorial candidate’s victory party.
Campaign spokesman Parker Biden says Laxalt personally made telephone calls to voters Tuesday night right up until the end.
The attorney general is running against Democrat Steve Sisolak to succeed popular GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval.
He’s watching national returns on television because no Nevada results have been released yet due to long lines in heavy turnout that kept some polling places from closing on time.
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9:37 p.m.
Nevada Republican Sen. Dean Heller has taken the stage at a GOP party in Las Vegas to thank supporters and praise President Donald Trump.
Heller is running for re-election against Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen. He went onstage briefly Tuesday night with his family at the South Point hotel-casino shortly after Republicans nationally clinched control of the U.S. Senate.
No results have been released in his race yet because people who were stuck in long lines at polling places across the state were still voting well after polls closed at 7 p.m.
Heller used his brief speech to tout the robust U.S. economy, saying it was “thanks to this president and this Republican Congress that put America and Nevada back to work.”
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9:28 p.m.
Hundreds of supporters of Nevada Republican Adam Laxalt have gathered in a Reno hotel-casino ballroom for what they hope will be the gubernatorial candidate’s victory party.
The state attorney general is running against Democrat Steve Sisolak in the battleground state, where popular GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval has completed his maximum two terms.
More than 300 Laxalt backers were snacking on popcorn, pretzels and fruit plates Tuesday night while watching election results on Fox News in the ballroom decorated with blue, white and gold balloons. It’s filled with Laxalt campaign signs that say “Protect Nevada.”
A big part of his campaign theme has been his vow to keep California values out of Nevada.
Laxalt is counting on the GOP’s voter registration edge in Washoe County, Reno and Sparks to offset the big Democratic advantage in Clark County and Las Vegas, which makes up 70 percent of the state’s vote.
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9:15 p.m.
A Nevada state election official says voting is still going on in three counties, and statewide election results won’t be released until after the last ballot is cast.
Deputy Nevada Secretary of State Wayne Thorley says voting was still going on at 9 p.m. Tuesday at polling places in Clark, Lyon and Washoe counties.
That includes the Las Vegas and Reno areas, home to 87 percent of the states’ voters.
Thorley says no results will be released until the last vote is cast.
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8:50 p.m.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Dina Titus says she sees enthusiasm among people waiting in line to vote after closing time at several polling places in Las Vegas.
Titus said Thursday she brought a tray of cookies to people in line at the Boulevard Mall in her district in Las Vegas and visited with people waiting at Roy Martin Middle School.
She says ballot printers malfunctioned a couple of hours before polls closed at 7 p.m. at the school, but people in line told her they were determined to stay.
She described the situation to The Associated Press by telephone on her way to another delayed poll closure spot at Rancho High School.
Titus says the enthusiasm she’s seeing by Democrats is an indictment of the president and the Republican agenda, from health care to immigration.
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8:15 p.m.
The Republican and Democrat in Nevada’s neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race are watching election returns privately before heading to election parties.
Republican Sen. Dean Heller’s campaign spokesman Keith Schipper says the senator is watching returns with his family and staff in a suite at the South Point hotel-casino in Las Vegas, where Republicans were holding an election night celebration.
Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen’s campaign spokesman Stewart Boss said she was watching returns with her husband in a suite at Caesars Palace, where the Nevada Democratic Party was holding its celebration.
Election results were delayed because voters in line after polls closed were still being allowed to vote.
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8 p.m.
A mariachi band serenaded voters at one southern Nevada high school polling place where people were still lined up waiting to vote more than 30 minutes after polls closed.
Deputy Nevada Secretary of State Wayne Thorley said around 7:45 p.m. that voting was still going on for people in lines in Clark, Lyon and Washoe counties.
He says results should start to be released statewide around 9 p.m.
At some sites, poll workers had to mark the end of lines at 7 p.m. and began turning people away.
Officials say voting was steady and strong at polling places around the state, including 172 polling places in and around Las Vegas.
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7:10 p.m.
Election closing time has come in Nevada with officials promising people lined up at polling places that if they arrived before 7 p.m., they’ll be able to vote.
Deputy Nevada Secretary of State Wayne Thorley said Tuesday the process could delay the release of statewide voting results until close to 9 p.m.
Clark County elections spokesman Dan Kulin says lines had formed before scheduled poll closing times in and around Las Vegas.
Thorley says the same scene is unfolding around the state.
Extra-long lines also were reported at centralized polling places at shopping centers in Reno and Henderson.
Officials described election turnout as strong and steady throughout the day following two weeks of early voting that saw more ballots cast statewide than during the 2014 midterm election.
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6:15 p.m.
Washoe County Registrar of Voters Deanna Spikula is reporting unusually strong turnout for a midterm election in her northern Nevada county that includes Reno and Sparks.
With less than an hour to go before the polls close at 7 p.m., Spikula says Washoe County turnout has now reached 66 percent.
That compares with 52 percent in the 2014 midterm election, and 79 percent in the presidential election in 2016.
Washoe County accounts for about 17 percent of Nevada’s statewide vote. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has 70 percent of statewide active voters.
Democrats edged Republicans in early voting in Washoe County, 40.5 percent to 39 percent.
But 37 percent of Washoe County’s active voters are registered Republicans, 35 percent Democrats. It’s an advantage of more than 5,000 voters.
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5:45 p.m.
The casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip where Nevada Democrats are gathering has experienced power issues.
Caesars Entertainment says power has been restored at Caesars Palace casino-resort after it experienced intermittent issues Tuesday.
The alarms temporarily flashed in the ballroom where Democratic candidates plan to speak election night.
Caesars says it is investigating the cause of the outage.
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5:20 p.m.
A Nevada state court judge says Republican party poll observers can remain inside polling places in and around Las Vegas until voters finish casting ballots, even if it’s after 7 p.m.
Clark County District Court Judge Timothy Williams issued a temporary order Tuesday instructing county elections chief Joe Gloria not to prevent party poll watchers from seeing polling places close.
The order came in a civil complaint filed Monday by the Nevada Republican Party. It alleges members of the public were instructed to leave early polling sites during two weeks of voting that sometimes drew closing-time lines.
The GOP complaint was filed by attorney Ervin Nelson. It declares that the public has a significant interest in ensuring elections are open, free and fair.
Officials say anyone still in line when polls close at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
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4:55 p.m.
A Nevada election official calls polling place balloting “robust” following two weeks of early voting that saw more votes cast statewide than during the previous midterm election in 2014.
Deputy Nevada Secretary of State Wayne Thorley tallied about 190,000 voters statewide at about 3 p.m., after eight hours of voting with four more hours to go. That’s more than 12 percent of the nearly 1.6 million active voters statewide.
That will be added to the 35.5 percent of Nevada voters - about 554,000 - who voted during two weeks of early voting.
In the 2014 midterms, 552,000 total votes were cast, or about 45.5 percent of eligible voters.
In and around Las Vegas, Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin characterizes voting as “steady and strong”
Officials say anyone still in line when polls close at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote.
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11:55 a.m.
Las Vegas voter Karla Kwist says a threat to families posed by changes to the country’s immigration policies was a motivator to vote this year.
She told The Associated Press that the fathers of each of her two children came to the U.S. as immigrants when they were in high school, and she understands their “conquests and troubles.”
The 57-year old child custody mediator says the rhetoric in Washington around immigration is meant to “stir up people” but doesn’t offer solutions.
She says immigrants are not asking for handouts and are coming to America for “an honest day’s work” and “willing to start at the bottom like any high school kid flipping burgers.”
She voted for Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen in the Nevada race for U.S. Senate. Kwist says Rosen has the “tenacity” to lead and find needed solutions.
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11:45 a.m.
Independent voter Jerry Lamb cast his ballot for some Republicans this year but cast his ballot in the race for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District for Democrat Susie Lee.
The Henderson resident told The Associated Press he thinks Republican Danny Tarkanian is in the race “for the wrong reasons,” and he doesn’t know Lee as well but he thinks it’s good to have more women in elected office.
The 72-year-old manager said he thinks women are “more reasonable” and he thinks they are better at working across party lines.
Lamb says he would also like to see Democrats take control of the House to provide a balance of power in Washington and some oversight of the Trump administration.
He says he doesn’t want to see Democrats pursue an impeachment of the president but would like them to “put the brakes on some of the nonsense that we see.”
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11:20 a.m.
The Republican nominee for Nevada governor has voted in Reno.
Campaign aide Parker Briden says state Attorney General Adam Laxalt voted with family members at a polling place at Bartley Ranch Regional Park.
The Democratic candidate, Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak voted earlier at a middle school in Las Vegas.
Laxalt is the grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt and son of former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico.
Sisolak hopes to become the first Democratic governor in Nevada in nearly two decades.
The next Nevada governor will succeed term-limited Republican Brian Sandoval going into the 2019 state Legislature, and will oversee redrawing congressional and state legislative districts after the 2020 U.S. Census.
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10:05 a.m.
Alyssa Herman says she voted for Nevada Sen. Dean Heller because he’s a Republican but he’s also a moderate.
Herman is an unaffiliated voter from Henderson who says her views align more closely with the GOP but she wants to see politicians who can be bipartisan.
The 22-year-old nanny and university student said she likes the idea of smaller government and the economy is a prime concern for her.
She says she also voted for Republican Danny Tarkanian in the race for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District because she would prefer to see Republicans keep control of the House.
Herman says she hopes that if Republicans keep the House and Senate that they will be able to get things done.
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9:40 a.m.
A 62-year-old registered Democrat from Reno says he voted for Republican Sen. Dean Heller last time and is “no fan” of his Democratic challenger Jacky Rosen. But Dan Lavely says he refused to vote for any Republicans this time around, primarily because of President Donald Trump.
Lavely told The Associated Press that the biggest knock against Heller was his flip-flop on health care.
The service manager at a big-box corporate retailer in Sparks says he’s doing about the same financially under Trump as he did under Barack Obama.
But Lavely says Trump hasn’t done anything to make his life better.
He says the GOP tax bill was a “total joke - a one-time thing” that had no impact on him. He has mixed feelings about immigration, but he says he doesn’t want to build a wall or send 2,000 troops to the Mexican border.
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8:25 a.m.
The Democratic nominee for Nevada governor has voted.
Campaign aide Grigsby Crawford says Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak went to a Las Vegas middle school local polling place Tuesday morning to cast his ballot along with his two adult daughters, Ashley and Carley.
Sisolak hopes to become the first Democratic governor in Nevada in nearly two decades.
He’s running against Republican state Attorney General Adam Laxalt. He’s scheduled to vote in Reno.
Laxalt is the grandson of former U.S. Sen. and Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt and son of former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico.
The next Nevada governor will succeed term-limited Republican Brian Sandoval heading into the 2019 state Legislature, and will oversee redrawing congressional and state legislative districts after the 2020 U.S. Census.
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8:05 a.m.
Voting is underway across Nevada as polling locations open for Tuesday’s midterm election during which voters will decide pivotal races for a U.S. Senate seat and governor.
The election also will decide more than 50 state legislative races, six ballot questions, whether Democrats keep two Las Vegas-area congressional seats and whether Republicans continue to hold such statewide offices as lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, controller and attorney general.
Nevada polling places can be found at the secretary of state’s office website , and voters in Clark, Washoe and Douglas counties and Carson City can also go to any voting center location.
Polls close after the last person in line at 7 p.m. has a chance to vote.
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12:05 a.m.
Nevada voters are set to decide pivotal races for U.S. Senate and governor, and now the only way to cast a ballot is in person.
Tuesday’s election will decide more than 50 state legislative races, six ballot questions, whether Democrats keep two Las Vegas-area congressional seats and whether Republicans continue to hold statewide offices including lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, controller and attorney general.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and close after the last person in line at 7 p.m. has a chance to vote.
Election officials say voters should beware of misinformation. Ballots cannot be cast by text message, telephone or online.
Nevada polling places can be found at the secretary of state’s office website , and voters in Clark, Washoe and Douglas counties and Carson City can also go to any voting center location.
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