Trump claims another decisive victory in Nevada

As reports of chaos and shenanigans in some precincts filtered out of the Nevada caucuses, Donald Trump claimed an unsurprising victory Tuesday night.

With five5percent of precincts reporting their results, Trump led the GOP presidential field with a 16.6 percentage-point lead. Most news outlets called the race for Trump early, even as observers in Nevada reported ballot shortages, double voting, and confusion at caucus meetings.

“No one is checking in or checking IDs,” Mashable reporter Emily Cahn tweeted from Las Vegas. “They’re handing out ballots willy nilly. Some guy voted Trump twice.”

Also in Las Vegas, Elaina Plott of National Review tweeted: “People registered for precinct 1303 in Sierra Vista showed up to caucus. There was literally no site set up.”

Even with the dysfunction—including party workers’ hastily counting stacks of ballots by hand—it was hard to argue with the commanding lead Trump mustered well ahead of today’s caucuses. Polls predicted he would win by double digits in Nevada, his third straight victory after primaries in South Carolina and New Hampshire.

Because the Republican Party in Nevada divides its delegates to the national convention proportionally among candidates, other contenders could see small gains from the caucuses. In early returns, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., held second place with 25 percent of the vote, five points ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Like Iowa, the other early caucus state, Nevada will send 30 delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer. The eventual presidential nominee will need votes from 1,237 of the 2,472 votes at the convention to win. Going into the Nevada caucuses, Trump had already won 67 delegates. Cruz had 11, and Rubio had 10. Delegates from Nevada will be officially assigned once the vote tally is final.