The Republican Primary outcome is a unique result here in Nevada.
The silver state is making national headlines for a quirk in our election system that allows voters to choose "none of these candidates."
The "none" option received more votes by about 60 percent over Nikki Haley's 30 percent.
This isn't the first time a candidate in a primary election in Nevada has received less votes than the option.
In 1975, Nevada added the option to all state and presidential elections.
Nevada is the first and only state that has this on its ballots.
However, "none of these candidates" can't win the election, so the winner goes to the next candidate with the most votes.
"So, when legislators included it in our election system it was to allow a Nevada voter to voice their disdain of quality or selection of the candidates," said Fred Lokken, Political Science Professor, Truckee Meadows Community College.
The first time the "none" option received majority was in the 1976 Republican Primary Election.
"None of these candidates" received just over 1,600 votes and next was Walden Earhart who received just under 10,000 votes.
"This was a very conservative republican state at the time, and they wanted a more conservative candidate, and they weren't happy there wasn't one on," Lokken said.
Another notable incident was in 2014.Â
In the Democratic Gubernatorial Primary, "none of these candidates" received 30 percent of the popular vote and runner up, Robert Goodman received 25 percent.
He was named the Democratic nominee against then Governor at the time Brain Sandoval.
"That was a message within the democratic party for the dissatisfaction who they came up for in the challenge," Lokken said.
Back in 2012, the Republican National Committee went to the Federal Appeals Court questioning the constitutionality of the option, but the court rejected the lawsuit.
"Any state has the right to set the rules, regulations, structures and practices of its voting system and that's what they ruled back in 2012," Lokken said.
Nikki Haley is now another candidate to not receive the majority to the option.
"We're the only state that has that and apparently their campaign didn't realize that," Lokken said. "Never campaigned here and never checked the landscape and so bad campaigning and not really understanding how the state works and here we are with a major embarrassment for the Haley campaign."
Lokken says usually these types of voter protests aren't organized, but this one was.
"But it was an organized effort by the state republican party," he said. "They started sending out emails to all the people they were anticipating voting for Trump by participating in the caucus and they said use that ballot that you got in the mail and do none of these candidates."
The Republican Party says it let candidates know that if they ran in the primary, they wouldn't be able to earn delegates from the caucus.
Lokken says that primaries and caucuses typically have low voter turnouts, which is why the "none" can make a mark on primary elections.
He also says that the votes received for the "none of the candidates" option will be a good idea of what the turnout will be for tomorrow's caucus.
