The Mississippi primary (FINAL UPDATE: THE DELEGATE COUNT)

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Election 2008Final Update – Weds. 9:06 AM: Looks like BO will pick up roughly 6 or 7 more delegates than Hillary.

Update 4 – 9:32 PM: I’m still around, but nothing major has popped up to link to. So far it’s close, with BO being ahead by just under 4,000 votes with 18% reporting, but the nets are saying his victory will be “decisive.”

Update 3 – 8:19 PM: Race was a significant factor in this primary – for both black Dems and white Dems. See page 5 of this exit poll.

Update 2 – 8:00 PM: Fox already calls MS for BO. What we’ll be waiting on for the rest of the evening is to find out how many delegates each candidate will win. Stay tuned for vote counts to start rolling in.

Update 1 – 7:55 PM: Polls close in MS in five minutes. Allah’s got exit polling info that was discussed on Fox News earlier. From what he’s got there, it looks like it will be a good night for BO.

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Today’s primary in Mississippi will be the last one before the big delegate prize in Pennsylvania on April 22. In spite of all the hype about today’s primary, voter turnout is expected to be light, although it’s anticipated that there will be more people voting in this one than the 2004 primary. There are a total of 33 delegates in play in MS, and, if recent polling numbers are to be believed, Barack Obama is the odds on favorite to win, thanks in part to the state’s “large black electorate.”

Hillary’s had to spend some time the last few days clarifying remarks she made about MS in October in which she suggested that she believed that MS was essentially a backwater state that was hostile to women candidates on a state level. We’ve also seen over the last several days the Clinton campaign playing the low expectations game, acknowledging that they don’t see her coming close to winning in MS.

Obama’s trying to ensure victory by accusing the Clinton campaign of using “Republican tactics” against him, and cited the example of the picture that was posted on Drudge of him wearing “traditional African garb” which gave him the appearance of dressing like a Muslim. Drudge claimed that it came from a Clinton staffer. This is in contrast to Obama stating at the last Dem debate that he believed Senator Clinton when she said at the debate that the picture was not something she condoned or sanctioned, nor knew about.

Polls close at 8 PM ET. You can watch the results as they come in here.

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