Trump claims decisive win in Nevada

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

Most news outlets called the race for Trump as soon as the caucuses closed at 9 p.m. PST, 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 primary wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

“We're winning, winning, winning the country,” Trump told supporters at his victory party in a Las Vegas casino. “Soon, the country is going to start winning, winning, winning.”

After listing upcoming primary states where he’s leading in the polls, Trump predicted he’d soon be able to claim the GOP nomination: “It's going to be an amazing two months. We might not even need the two months, folks, to be honest.”

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., was in second place 20 points behind Trump (44 to 24 percent) and 4 points ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Far behind Rubio and Cruz were retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson at 6 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 4 percent.

Rubio, who left Nevada early to campaign in Michigan, has now finished as the runner-up to Trump in the two most recent contests, his best showings so far. Cruz continues to lose some momentum after winning the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, finishing third for the third consecutive time.

Like Iowa, Nevada will send 30 delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer. The eventual presidential nominee will need 1,237 of the 2,472 delegates 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.

UPDATE (10:45 a.m.): Marco Rubio officially won second place in the Nevada caucuses over Ted Cruz by a margin of fewer than 2,000 votes. In the end, Donald Trump took 46 percent of the vote, and Rubio and Cruz got 24 and 21 percent, respectively. Trump picked up 14 delegates, bringing his total to 81. Rubio received seven to Cruz’s six, meaning they are now tied at 17 delegates apiece. Ben Carson and Ohio Gov. John Kasich each garnered one delegate from Tuesday’s caucuses. For more details, visit WORLD’s Election Center ’16.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.