Democrashield.com

It’s a busy day today, so let’s get into it.

In Reno, it’s going to be mostly sunny with a high temperature of 43 degrees; in Las Vegas, it’s supposed to be sunny with a high temperature of 52.

The press has already declared one winner–they have projected that Mitt Romney will win the Nevada Republican caucus. Here are the current results, via TPM, 3:30 PM EST:

Pollster showed Romney with a significant lead going into the caucus. He went on to win with an even more commanding victory than predicted, confirming that his success in Michigan wasn’t a fluke and cementing his position as a Republican front-runner.

Of course, that isn’t to say that the Nevada Republican caucus hasn’t had problems:

At least 40 Republicans got off on the wrong foot Saturday in their effort to attend the presidential caucus and some were pretty upset. “That’s it,’’ says Lois Kelly. “I’m getting ready to go for Obama I’m so fed up.”

The Republicans scheduled 12 of their precincts to cast their votes at the governor’s mansion. But two days before Saturday, they changed the location. And apparently the party was unsuccessful in notifying everybody of the switch.

More than 40 Republicans showed up at the mansion Saturday morning. There was a small sign outlining the switch but it didn’t give any directions to the new site of the Senior Center. And the sign could not be read from the street.

There was no one stationed at the mansion to re-direct the voter.

Debra Rodich, when informed by reporters of the switch, said, “We’re supposed to be the organized party.” She said she did not receive any notification of the change and she called the party “very arrogant.”

“This is very discouraging,” she said.

On the Democratic side, the caucuses has finished–we should have results soon.

Pollster shows Hillary Clinton with a lead over Barack Obama, though her momentum is downward-trending while his is upward-trending. The last Democratic poll out of NV was a Zogby survey showing Clinton with 45% and Obama with 39%, nearly within the margin of error. Nevada has never played a significant role in the early primaries before, so it’s hard to predict how this will play out.

In addition, the legal battle between the Nevada Culinary Workers’ Union and the Nevada Teachers’ Union has added an extra degree of complexity to the race. Shortly after the Nevada Culinary Workers’ Union–which encompasses most of the workers at Las Vegas casinos–endorsed Barack Obama, the Nevada Teachers’ Union–which hasn’t endorsed anyone, but whose leadership has individually endorsed Clinton–filed a lawsuit. The purpose of their lawsuit was to shut down 9 at-large caucus locations along the Las Vegas strip, which were set up to allow casino workers to caucus without having to return to their home districts. If someone proved they worked within 2.5 miles of the strip, they could caucus at the at-large sites. Yet, the caucus rules were set and made public months ago, so it didn’t make sense for them to wait so long to file a lawsuit, which was why their case was thrown out of court.

Obama used the attempt to keep Las Vegas workers from caucusing as a way to rally his supporters, particularly those in the Culinary Workers’ Union. Could this fight have soured some Las Vegas voters on Clinton? Could it have galvinized union support for Obama? We won’t know until the results are in, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up playing a significant result in the Las Vegas caucuses.

Today is also the day of the South Carolina Republican primary. In Charleston it’s rainy with a high temperature of 40 degrees, while in Greenville it’s snowy with a high of 33 degrees.

Pollster shows McCain recently pulling ahead of Huckabee–corroborating this, SurveyUSA shows McCain with 31% and Hucbakee with 27%. On the other hand, ARG shows Huckabee with 33% and McCain with 26%, which could either be an outlier or an indication of recent momentum. No matter what, it’s clear that this one will be a nail-biter.

There has been a significant amount of dirty campaigning going on in the Palmetto State, a replay of the types of tricks that killed McCain’s first run for President. On on hand, though, SC’s large veteran and military population could help McCain, while their Christian conservative and Republican evangelical population could help Hucbakee–the results here may simply be a matter of turnout.

Both McCain and Huckabee need a victory here–Huckabee hasn’t won since Iowa, while McCain’s victory in New Hampshire was dampened by Romney’s win in Michigan. A loss in SC could seriously hurt either candidate, and only Florida stands between today and Super Tuesday for the Republicans.

So far, the SC GOP primary has been dogged with problems: voting machine malfunctions, voters being turned away from the polls and unusually low turnout. In response to some of these issues, McCain’s South Carolina State Director has released this statement:

“We have received reports from Horry County that voters are being turned away from the polls, because electronic voting machines are not working and paper ballots are not available. Some voters say they are being instructed to return at a later time. We are disturbed by these reports and hope that this issue is resolved immediately. We encourage any voters who were turned away from the polls to return again to their polling place this afternoon to exercise their constitutional right to vote.”

Today is going to be a big day for both parties, and I’ll bring you more as it comes out.

UPDATE: The results for the Nevada Caucuses are above, but CNN brings us this from South Carolina:

A top backer for John McCain’s presidential bid tells CNN the Arizona senator’s campaign is seeking a court order to extend voting in Horry County by one hour, after learning voting machines in this eastern part of the state were malfunctioning on primary day.

State Rep. Tracey Edge, R-Myrtle Beach, said the campaign was trying to find a circuit court judge to issue the ruling.

“We are seeking an order to extend the voting time, because of reported and publicized information that people were turned away from the polls,” Edge said.

All polls in the South Carolina Republican primary are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. ET. Complicating matters for McCain, the county has just one resident circuit court judge, who they have not yet been able to reach. McCain won Horry County when he ran for president in 2000.

It looks like McCain is trying to do two things at once–on one hand, it looks like he’s trying to pick up late voters by supporting electoral integrity; on the other hand, it also looks like he’s preparing for a loss by playing up allegations of voting problems.

These voting problems might raise significant issues going into the last hour and a half of voting time. We’ll have to see how this plays out, and if the McCain camp can find a judge to issue their order.