A Los Angeles Times reporter was covering a caucus event in southern Nevada when things suddenly got ugly on Saturday. The Associated Press says that reporter Ashley Powers was booed by a group of elderly Republican voters and accused of being a spy before being asked to leave.

Powers was at a community center in Sun City Anthem, a suburb of Las Vegas when a Republican volunteer falsely announced to the crowd that journalists were barred from balloting events. The mostly elderly group began to boo her and she was told that security would be summoned if she did not leave immediately.

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She left the room, but attempted to return, only to be grabbed by the arm and shoved by an older man. The caucus-goers believed that Powers might be recording the results of the caucus, which is forbidden. The reporter maintains that she was not.

Sun City Anthem was one of hundreds of caucus sites across the state of Nevada on Saturday. Most of them were open to the press. Clark County GOP spokesperson Bobbie Haseley called Powers to apologize after the incident.

“We don’t like those things to happen,” she told the AP, “That was a misunderstanding.”

The Nevada Republican party has said that it will begin publishing caucus results at 5:00 p.m. local time.

(Photo via Flickr Commons)