March primary madness: TX, OH, VT, and RI (UPDATE 23: FOX PROJECTS HILLARY TO WIN TX PRIMARY)
(Graphic courtesy of Stanford Kay for Newsweek)
Update 23 – 12:48 PM: Fox News is projecting Hillary to win the TX primary, which is huge, even if she doesn’t get the majority of delegates (we’ll likely find out the exact numbers sometime tomorrow). It’s a big momentum booster for her. The jury is still out on who will win the TX caucus, and we probably won’t know who wins that one until sometime late Wednesday morning. Final word of the night:
She’s baaaaaaaaaack.
Catch ya’ll in a few hours.
Update 22 – 11:53 PM: Wow – some Dem voters are still waiting to caucus in TX.
Update 21 – 11:40 PM: BO is making a speech, spinning tonight by saying that no matter what happens he will probably have the same delegate lead he started with at the beginning of the day. He doesn’t sound like he wants to concede Ohio. Do I have to watch this? Yes, I do – and will – for you, my dear readers 
He’s still lying about McCain’s 100 years war comment. Sigh.
Is it just me, or does the crowd seem a little less enthusiastic than some of his others?
Update 20 – 11:25 PM: Hillary “we’re ready to end the war in Iraq, and win the war in Afghanistan.”
Jim Geraghty notes that 10% of voters in OH and TX were Republicans. Is this what’s called the “Rush Limbaugh Effect“?
Update 19 – 11:16 PM: Hillary is about to make her Ohio victory speech. She’s pulled ahead by about 20K votes in TX.
Update 18 – 10:56 PM: The BO magic seems to be wearing off. Did NAFTAgate do him in? Fox and CNN are both calling Ohio for Clinton. She has a comfortable lead there now, and analysts are saying BO woudn’t be able to make up even assuming Cuyahoga goes overwhelmingly for BO. Clinton is now ahead in TX after being way behind early on. But even if she loses TX, the story of the night is that Hillary is back in the game.
I wonder if BO will blame this on the media being mean to him this week and/or if he’ll blame it on “dirty tactics” from the Clinton campaign? Bets?
Update 17 – 10:34 PM: Is anyone else watching Fox News and listening what’s being reported about what the head of the Dem party in OH said about the alleged shortage of ballots? He said there was “no evidence” there was any shortage of ballots and saw no evidence for the judge to have been able to extend the voting hours, and the Dem Sec. of State caught this and tried to appeal the decision but it was 6 minutes before the polls closed. When asked whether or not it looked like the places the BO campaign asked to remain open longer than the stated hours were “cherrypicked” by the BO campaign, there were allegedy affirmative nods in response. The alleged “cherrypicked” counties were counties where there is a significant percentage of …. black voters. The Hillary campaign, according to Fox, would like to challenge this but doesn’t want to appear as though they are “disenfranchising” black voters, so they are in a pickle.
Does this remind anyone of how The Goracle only wanted select counties recounted in 2000? 
If this is true, I hope BO loses big time in OH, expecially in the polling places his campaign sought to have kept open longer.
I’ll try to find a link on this when it becomes available. This is a potentially huge development.
Full Cuyahoga County results may not be in until 4:30 AM tomorrow.
The gap has narrowed to about 2,000 votes in TX, with BO still in the lead.
Update 16 – 10:05 PM: The race in TX is tightening up. Keep your eyes on the results.
Update 15 – 9:48 PM: McCain is giving his victory speech now. The “1191” sign has been unveiled. He’s defending staying in Iraq and is making it a focal point of his speech. Thank you, Senator.
Meanwhile, things get nasty in TX.
Update 14 – 9:30 PM: BO loses his first state in, like, forever. CNN is calling Rhode Island for Hillary. 21 delegates total are at stake there.
Hillary is ahead in OH with about 10% reporting, but if you scroll down on this page and run your cursor over the map on the Dem side towards the upper part of Ohio , you’ll see Cuyahoga county, which had several polling places kept open beyond 7:30. When results start coming in there is when the Dem race is going to get very interesting.
Update 13 – 9:20 PM: Huckabee is now giving a classy concession speech.
Update 12 – 9:03 PM: Fox is projecting McCain wins OH, TX, and RI and will get the number of delegates he needs tonight, and then some, to win the nomination. Bush may endorse him tomorrow.
Update 11 – 8:55 PM: Fox just clarified that the federal judge’s order to keep certain polling places open did not include Franklin county, and part of the reason they were kept open was weather-related. All polls – OH (I think), TX, RI – close in five minutes.
The votes we are seeing coming out of TX is from the early vote.
Update 10 – 8:30 PM: BO is ahead in TX by about 130K votes with 1% reporting. ST projects BO wins TX. Yeah, I know, it’s early but with OH results being delayed, I’m bored 
The TX turnout for Dems is HUGE.
Hotline Blog is reporting that it’s only a matter of time before Huck concedes:
A Huckabee senior aide tells NBC/National Journal that Mike Huckabee tonight will congratulate John McCain and will be in touch with the McCain campaign tomorrow from Little Rock to coordinate a concession.
[…]
The aide said that Huckabee wants to have contact with McCain tomorrow in Little Rock before deciding what next to do.
Update 9 – 8:15 PM: We won’t be getting any results from OH til after 9, since Sandusky will be open til 9, and a few polling places in Cuyahoga will be open til then, too. TX results are already starting to come in.
Update 8 – 8:03 PM: Sandusky County polling places will be open til 9 ET. Fox News’ Major Garrett reports more on the BO campaign’s request to keep the polling places open in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, and said the arguments are still being heard before a judge. Also says BO campaign is starting to feel a tiny bit optimistic about OH because some of Hillary’s strong districts were hit by bad weather today.
Update 7 – 7:51 PM: Via Fox: The BO campaign has asked for Cuyahoga County (and Franklin) to stay open past the 7:30 close time due to them supposedly running out of ballots, and the OH Sec. of State has asked a judge to keep Sandusky County open because polling places there ran out of ballots. Keep your eye on Cuyahoga because that will be the big prize in OH.
Update 6 – 7:30 PM: Polls are now closed in OH. Refresh this link often to see results as they come in.
Update 5 – 7:21 PM: McCain is likely to get the number of delegates he needs tonight to clinch the nomination:
Going into Tuesday’s voting, McCain had 1,014 delegates, according to an Associated Press tally. He needs 1,191 for the nomination. The four states voting Tuesday have 256 delegates at stake.
Although polls in each of those states strongly favor McCain, one complicating factor is the way delegates are allocated in Texas. Under state GOP rules, McCain would need more than 50% of the vote — statewide and in each of 32 congressional districts — for a winner-take-all claim to the delegates.
FoxNews’ Carl Cameron just reported that the McCain campaign already has a “1191” (the number of delegates he needs) banner ready to display.
Polls close in OH at in 9 minutes.
Update 4 – 7:09 PM: Considering the exits, it’s no surprise that VT has been called for Obama and McCain.
Update 3 – 6:52 PM: Check out the latest “scandal” emerging in the liberal blogsphere: Hillary’s ad: debate footage doctored to make Obama blacker. *sigh* Charles Johnson tries to explain carefully to the Nutroots why they are likely incorrect here.
Update 2 – 6:26 PM: Check out these exits. The numbers are very tight for TX, OH, and RI. If that holds true, it’s gonna be a lonnnng night. Vermont exits are showing Obama up by a margin of 2 to 1. 15 delegates are at stake there. Read more in depth info on the exits here.
Via Drudge: Polls start closing at 7:30 ET in Ohio; 8 and 9 in Texas.
The Statesman blog has a write-up about possible caucus shenanigans going on in TX in advance of the official caucus start time, which is 8:15 ET.
Update 1 – 6:12 PM: MSNBC’s First Read reports that the weather stinks in Ohio, but that people are turning out nevertheless. They also report the usual accusations from both camps of “irregularities” in voting at some of the polling places in OH. Marc Ambinder blogs that the Hillary camp’s claims may be valid, as per the Democrat Sec. of State in Ohio:
Ohio’s Secretary of State, an office held by a Democrat, has rebuked Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign for trying to staff precincts with poll workers who presented insufficient credentials.
Obama’s campaign calls this charge “wrong.”
In a memo sent late this morning to county election directors by David M. Farrell, Ohio’s
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, a letter carried by Obama supporters — signed by Obama state director Paul Tewes — is deemed “not legally sufficient on its own to allow someone to gain access to polling places.”Farrell notes that state law requires that polling observers must be “duly appointed” and have been previously issued a certificate.
The letter from Tewes states the bearer ‘is hereby authorized to serve as a legal poll monitor on behalf of the Obama campaign.”
The alleged infraction seems minor, but the Clinton campaign has seized on the e-mail from the Secretary of State’s office as evidence that the Obama campaign is trying to game the system in Ohio.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer blog reports that GOP voters are crossing over to vote in the Dem primary in “large numbers” and that their motives are both “pure and sinister.” (via Memeo)
Meanwhile in Texas, the Dallas News has an article up noting that turnout in North Texas has been “brisk.” There is also a huge BO ad on the main page. Today’s turnout will be a record turnout in TX, per Bloomberg.com.
TX and OH voters, if you’ve already been out to vote today, check in in the comments and let us know what you saw, how it went, etc.
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Today is a huge day for both Democrat hopefuls for president. Senator Barack Obama hopes to be able to deliver a solid knockout punch to Hillary Clinton’s bid for the nomination, and in turn La Clinton is hoping to be able to stop O-mentum from racking up another 4 wins to add to his last 11. Tonight is gonna be a long night, and I’ll try to hang in there and blog results for as long as I can. Here are the states in play today, and the delegate counts at stake in each one:
Texas: 193
Ohio: 141
Rhode Island: 21
Vermont: 15
Polling numbers from both the state of Texas and the state of Ohio are close, with things being neck and neck in TX, while Hillary having the edge in Ohio.
If Texas is close, which it probably will be, we likely won’t know who won the most delegates out of that state until tomorrow, because they have a complicated proportional delegate system. Not only that, but the Dems hold caucuses after the primary, which confuses outsiders like me
For results from each primary, keep the following links handy:
On the frontburner for discussion today as it relates to Campaign 2008:
—- ABC has released a new poll showing that Democrats want Hillary to stay in the race if she wins Ohio or Texas, but not if she loses both. I say she stays in even if she loses both.
—- The NAFTAgate fallout continues, with the leftosphere starting to speculate that conservatives in both the Canadian and US government conspired to bring down BO. The AP reports that leaders in the Canadian government are denying that they are trying to influence/interfere with the presidential election.
—- Along that same front, the Captain has a good post up detailing the differences in how defensive and hostile BO was to MSM reporters yesterday in response to questions about NAFTAgate and Rezko versus how John McCain’s press conference went in response to the the NYT’s hit piece on him re: the alleged ‘affair.’ Very interesting reading.
As I asked last night, I wonder if this means the press is starting to turn on BO, especially when you consider that it was both local Chicago reporters and national writers from the AP and Reuters who were grilling him. BO seemed out of his element, presumably because he’s used to the press cozying up to him.
—- Jon Chait does some number crunching, and estimates what it would take for Hillary Clinton to make a comeback tonight.
Predictions, anyone?