Nevada caucus as it happened: Donald Trump declared winner for third straight victory

With Donald Trump the declared winner of tonight's Nevada caucus, we're going to wrap up our live coverage. Thanks for following and be sure to come back on 1 March for IBTimes UK's Super Tuesday coverage.

Despite landing in third, Ted Cruz has decided to give a speech tonight. "They are still counting the ballots, so we don't know the exact result. But I want to congratulate Donald Trump on a strong evening tonight," he told his supporters.

Marco Rubio, meanwhile, will speak about his second place finish tomorrow morning from Michigan.

I love the poorly educated.

-Donald Trump

The campaigns of Ted Cruz and John Kasich have both released statements hitting out against Marco Rubio and his inability to beat Trump.

"We love Nevada. We love Nevada. Thank you. Thank you," Trump says during his victory speech. "This is a great place. Thank you."

"We will be celebrating for a long time tonight. Have a good time," he continues. "You know we weren't expected to win this one, a couple of months ago. If you listened to the pundits we were not expected to win anything and now we're winning, winning winning."

h/t The Guardian

Ben Carson is determined to remain in the presidential race, despite his fourth place finish in Nevada. "I believe that things are starting to happen here," he said during a speech, as results came in.

He continued: "What will eventually happen is that the people, we the people will actually want to hear real solutions. It's just a matter of time before they start demanding answers, and start demanding solutions but now we're sort of in the ancient Rome stage where everyone wanted to go to the Coliseum 'bring on the lions and tigers see them eat the eagle.'"

h/t POLITICO

Here's a look at the counties that have reported their results:

Donald Trump is expected to speak soon on tonight's victory.

The Democratic National Committee has thoughts about Trump's big win tonight:

The results are just beginning to trickle in but Fox News is reporting that Senator Marco Rubio, who may very well take second place, "has gone to bed."

Two minutes after the caucuses end, Donald Trump is declared the overwhelming winner of the Nevada caucus.

The caucuses are set to close in just a few minutes, with results rolling in soon afterwards. Stay tuned as we update with the latest details.

NBC News has also released its entrance poll results. It found that 57% of voters are angry with the federal government—significantly higher than in Iowa (42%), New Hampshire (39%) and South Carolina (40%).

On who voters want in the White House: 61% want a political outsider, while 33% would prefer someone with political experience.

Nevada caucusgoer demographics: 36% are age 65 and above.

h/t NBC News

CNN has released entrance polling results. The polls revealed that whites made up 86% of the GOP voters during tonight's caucus. Latino voters accounted for another 8%.

The polls also revealed that 70% of caucusgoers said they made up their minds more than a week ago, while about 30% said they made their decision within the last week.

h/t CNN

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has acknowledged and says it's concerned about reports of double voting at a caucus site in Las Vegas. RNC spokesman Fred Brown told The Associated Press that the double voting issue appears to be contained to one section of the caucus site where two precincts had been combined. Brown said the party plans to compare the number of ballots cast to the sign-in sheet to determine whether double voting occurred.

h/t The Associated Press

The Nevada Republican Party claims that there have been no official reports of voting "irregularities or violations". Twitter and reporters, it seems, would disagree.

The Nevada GOP also clarified that volunteers are in fact allowed to wear candidate gear.

CBS News has revealed the results of its entrance poll: More than 50% of GOP voters reported being "angry" about the federal government, with only 5% saying they're satisfied about the federal government.

A GOP official has reportedly addressed reports of double voting during the caucus tonight.

As the Nevada caucus descends into pure chaos, the GOP's Twitter account seems a bit more preoccupied with following the Democratic Town Hall, which is being aired by CNN. A quick look down the party's feed reveals several attacks towards Hillary Clinton and even Vice President Joe Biden, but no details regarding Nevada. Meanwhile, @NevadaGOP has not tweeted in at least three hours.

Reports from Nevada are getting messier by the minute. Elaina Plott of the National Review reports that a ballot collector at Palo Verde precinct 3382 is "looking at ballots before decided whether to put them *in* the envelope."

Despite warnings from the Republican Party to not record caucus sites for suspicious activity, caucusgoers have taken to social media to report several incidents at the caucus locations. Marc Caputo of POLITICO took to Twitter to report that IDs are not being checked and a poll worker is wearing Trump gear (poll collectors must not show preference for any candidate).

h/t POLITICO

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has wavered between second and third place in Nevada, recently sacked a spokesman after he released a false video claiming rival Marco Rubio disparaged the Bible. The move follows intense criticism from his fellow Republicans for what many consider to be a campaign run by lies.

Cruz told reporters he asked for communication director Rick Tyler's resignation following the incident, calling the decision to post the false video "a grave error in judgment."

Tonight, however, Cruz's campaign released this pointed attack at frontrunner Donald Trump. Only time will tell if Cruz will backtrack from the unusual, albeit funny, jab.

Reports have emerged on social media of the chaos plaguing some caucus locations already. A reporter for Mashable says it's "chaos" at Palo Alto HS, where they've just announced that they have run out of ballots. One voter even admitted he managed to vote for Donald Trump twice.

Trump has never been one to watch what he says, so it was no surprise when the presidential candidate noted he wished he could physically retaliate against protesters during a rally in Las Vegas.

"I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher folks," he said to raucous applause.

How does the Nevada caucus work? Caucus participants will head to neighbourhood meetings in hopes of nominating their presidential hopeful. There are more than 130 caucus locations across Nevada's 17 counties.

Caucusgoers will first elect a caucus chair and secretary, who will be in charge of running the caucus precinct. Then a supporter from each candidate will be given time to convince their neighbours to support their candidate. Residents will then cast their votes on paper ballots.

Same-day registration is not available for Republican caucusgoers. Only those who registered as Republicans 10 days before the caucus are able to participate.

h/t Newsweek

Welcome to our GOP caucus coverage! The remaining five candidates head west tonight to Nevada, just three days after the South Carolina primary. One-time favourite Jeb Bush suspended his campaign following several defeats on 20 February. Now, frontrunner Donald Trump seems poised to not only take Nevada, but the Republican nomination as well.