Tony Chavez and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Cardenas Market in East Las Vegas on Saturday to pick up a few essentials — bread, three dozen eggs and ingredients for tamales.
Mr. Chavez did not expect to check something else off his list. But when he saw poll workers and signs saying that he could vote, well, why not?
“I already made my decision, and it’s better to be early to beat that line as well,” said Mr. Chavez, 38, with a prominent “I Voted” sticker on his all-black Las Vegas Raiders letterman jacket.
“I saw the signs and was like, ‘Is that the voting?’” he added. “‘Let me just do it right now.’”
Mr. Chavez, who works as a cook, was part of a steady stream of people who took advantage of that particular polling location in Las Vegas on what was the first day of in-person early voting in Nevada, which runs through Nov. 1.
He declined to say whom he was supporting for president, but he said that rights for migrants and for women were important to him and that this choice “would affect my kids’ future.”
Another voter, James Still, also marveled at the convenience. His wife, Jennifer, wore a shirt supporting Ms. Harris, and Mr. Still said they had both voted for her because “politicians shouldn’t tell women what to do with their bodies.” For them, as for Mr. Chavez, voting was an added benefit of coming to the store.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump are locked in a tight battle for Nevada’s six electoral votes. Both candidates have spent time in the state recently, and Mr. Trump will return next Thursday for a rally at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Polling shows that the race in Nevada is extremely tight, which has meant that the state has been deluged with canvassers knocking on people’s doors, tens of millions of dollars in television advertising and a constant flow of surrogates from both parties.
For Democrats, Saturday culminated with an appearance in Las Vegas by former President Barack Obama, who has been visiting battleground states to energize Democrats. He was in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday.
Speaking in a high school gym filled to capacity with 3,000 people and another thousand watching in an overflow area, according to the Harris campaign, Mr. Obama acknowledged the struggles Nevadans were facing — how people are “treading water,” as he put it, from high housing and consumer prices — and how that might make an alternative to Democrats attractive.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up,” he told the crowd. “What I cannot understand is why anyone would think Donald Trump would shake things up in a way that’s good for you.” He added, “We do not need a president who makes problems worse just to make his politics better.”
David Cohen, a Democratic strategist who served as the Nevada state director for Mr. Obama’s 2008 primary campaign, said, “The campaign is probably thinking: How do we galvanize enough attention to remind people that this is when you vote and that the lines won’t be long when you vote early?”
“Having Barack Obama is probably the only way to do that,” Mr. Cohen added.
Earlier on Saturday, Nevada Republicans rallied near a polling site in Summerlin, Nev., where they discussed the benefits of voting early.
“You have to drive all your friends out,” Michael McDonald, the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, said to about 50 people alongside the state’s Republican nominee for Senate, Sam Brown, and other politicians. “Act like they owe you money. Get them out to vote.”
“We have to take this country back,” Mr. McDonald added, “not just for President Trump, but all of our candidates. It does us no good if he wins and nobody else does, because he needs the support.”
Walking out of an early voting location in northwest Las Vegas, Tom and Lori Johnson said they were both excited to vote for Mr. Trump.
Mr. Johnson noted that there had been a rare blizzard on Election Day in Washoe County in 2022. It was an example, he said, that anything could happen.
“I wanted to just make sure we got out and did our voting early,” he said, adding: “I’m just so glad we have a chance to move into a more positive direction, because if we don’t go with the Trump side of it — or the Republican side — our country is in trouble.”
In front of an East Las Vegas field office for Democratic candidates, several Latino members of Congress, including Senator Alex Padilla and Representative Nanette Barragán, both of California, fired up about two dozen voters and volunteers alongside a mariachi band and a taco truck. The surrogates spoke about how they had served with Ms. Harris and knew she would move the country in a positive direction. They also talked about Mr. Trump’s demonizing of Mexicans — and of immigrants more broadly.
It was one of several events across the state — including one scheduled for Sunday in Reno featuring Gwen Walz, the wife of Ms. Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, and the actress Jennifer Garner — seeking to hype people up to vote.
Mr. Padilla, who became California’s first Latino senator when he replaced Ms. Harris in 2021, spoke to the crowd in Spanish and English, joking that he had not simply gotten lost on his way back to Los Angeles.
“You’re going to get groceries anyway,” Mr. Padilla said, pointing out that the nearest place to vote was a market.
“Bring a friend, bring a family member, bring a neighbor, bring a co-worker,” he said. “It’s so important that everybody who’s eligible gets out and votes.”
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