Saturday's primaries/caucuses

[TitanTiger 20,511]

First result is in. Mike Huckabee projected to win Kansas caucuses. With a little over half the votes counted, Huckabee has 61% of the vote, McCain has 24% and Paul has 11%.

[RunInRed 16,487]

What time are results expected for LA, NE, WA?

[TitanTiger 20,511]

I wouldn't expect anything before 8pm CST. CNN's coverage doesn't even start until 7pm CST and I wouldn't think they'd come in right as the polls were closing.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Sounds like there could be some delays in the Nebraska results....

Nebraska Democrats Overflow Caucus Sites

OMAHA, Neb. — Thousands of people statewide overflowed school gyms, sat in traffic and stood in groups on Saturday to be counted as part of Nebraska’s first Democratic presidential caucus.

Sen. Barack Obama was in tight race with Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, with 24 delegates at stake in Nebraska.

In Douglas County, the state’s most populous county, an average of 1,000 people turned out at each of 15 caucus sites, said Eric Fought, spokesman for the state party.

Sarpy County had only one caucus site for 28,000 registered Democrats, triggering traffic backups for miles, complaints from voters and changing the way officials conducted the caucus.

“To only have one polling place for the third largest county in our (state) was certainly a mistake,” said Joe Pilakowski, a 31-year-old high school teacher from Papillion. “It’s kind of a mess.”

Law enforcement shut down Highway 370 and the intersection leading into the site — a school cafeteria — because the area was packed with cars.

The influx of people was so massive that volunteers began collecting preference cards for people who preferred Obama or Clinton, then allowing them to leave. Traditional caucus procedures allow for more interaction, with supporters standing on either side of a room trying to convince the undecided and not-so-sure supporters of other candidates to join them.

“People are threatening to leave and we didn’t want anyone to leave without being counted.” said Marea Bishop, 43, of Bellevue a volunteer at the caucus. “The turnout is so far above all our wildest dreams.”

“Desperation,” Sarpy County Democratic Party Chairman Burke Summers said when asked why officials changed procedures at the last minute. School officials wanted the school cleared of caucus-goers by mid-afternoon to make way for a pair of youth basketball games.

Fought, the state party spokesman, said it was up to each county’s party leaders to adjust plans in the best way possible without drastically deviating from the procedures.

An early count showed that 6,000 people showed up at the school to caucus, including 2,000 people who registered Saturday. About 1,500 of the new registrants had switched from other parties.

“There’s a hell of a lot fewer Republicans in Sarpy County than there were yesterday,” Summers said.

The turnout was so high that officials in Douglas and Sarpy counties announced that they would delay the announcement of their results at least one-and-a-half hours.

“We had no ability to imagine anything,” Fought said. “That was part of the challenge here because we’ve never done this before.”

A total of 161 delegates were at stake Thursday in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the Virgin Islands.

Clinton began the day with a slender delegate lead in The Associated Press count. She had 1,045 delegates to 960 for Obama. A total of 2,025 is required to win the nomination at the party convention in Denver.

“It is time for a change and we need to voice our opinions,” said Christian Thiede, 34, of Bellevue, who brought three children ages 2, 4 and 8 to the Sarpy County caucus because a baby sitter fell through.

“We’ll wait it out as long as these guys are patient,” he said, referring to his kids.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson told Democrats at one site that has never been so excited on an election day — even his own.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Some early results from the Democratic Washington caucus are being reported on this blog:

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/huge_turnout

Not sure how biased or unbaised this site is but these posters seem to point towards Obama.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Just got this email from a Nebraska caucus-goer:

My precinct, #2, at North High School, was declared as a state of emergency. They expected 300 - 500 people to show up and instead over 1400 showed up.

They filled the high school's auditorium and the cafeteria.

Final count:

Obama: 1378

Clinton: 26

She didn't get 15% of the vote, so all the delegates went to Obama.

------------------

I think Obama could sweep tonight....we will soon know..

[TexasTiger 13,026]

“To only have one polling place for the third largest county in our (state) was certainly a mistake,” said Joe Pilakowski, a 31-year-old high school teacher from Papillion. “It’s kind of a mess.”

Uh, yeah...

[RunInRed 16,487]

Obama winning 2:1 in Washington...

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries...x.html#20080209

This will be called soon

[RunInRed 16,487]

Add Nebraska:

Obama: 69%

Clinton: 31%

73% reporting..should be called shortly

[RunInRed 16,487]

CNN calls Nebraska for Obama

[RunInRed 16,487]

Washington called for Obama

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Huckabee leads in Louisiana by 9% with about 21% in. Washington right now is McCain 27% and Huckabee 26% with about 16% in.

Oh, Louisiana called for Obama.

At what point do some of these super delegates start switching sides?

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Huckabee up by 10 in LA with 32% in.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Clean sweep!

Can't see how the super delegates are going to be able to stick with Hillary if Obama keeps winning the popular vote. He has won 19 of the 29 states so far. Talk about a riot if he wins the popular vote and the super delegates flip the race. Sounds like a possible huge mess in the making.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Huckabee up 10 in LA with 44% in.

Huckabee up 27%-23% over McCain in Washington with 37% in. Was anyone expecting Huckabee to sweep tonight?

[RunInRed 16,487]

Voters are sending an interesting statement to the Republican Party.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Huck still maintaining a 10 point spread in Louisiana with 55% reporting.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

McCain is being seriously outflanked in Washington. Huck leads him 27-23%, but Paul has grabbed 21% of the votes out there. Social conservatives on one side, libertarians on the other.

[RunInRed 16,487]

Add the Virgin Islands in Obama's column.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/020...in_Islands.html

Simon Caines, the executive director of the Democratic Party of the Virgin Islands, shared in a brief interview just now the preliminary results of that territory's caucuses, which produce the equivalent of three delegates.

With all of the votes there in, Caines said, the preliminary count is:

Obama: 1772 votes (89.9%)

Clinton: 149 votes (7.6%)

"We believe Senator Obama will receive all three of our pledged delegates," said Caines.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Huck's lead down to 47-39% in LA with 67% in.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

Why have the Washington GOP results stalled? The last update was 30 minutes ago and it's been stuck at 37% in ever since.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

McCain making a move? Huck's lead in LA down to 46-40 with 73% in.

[RunInRed 16,487]

LA will not matter for Repubs unless someone gets 50% which doesn't look like will happen.

[TexasTiger 13,026]

Why have the Washington GOP results stalled? The last update was 30 minutes ago and it's been stuck at 37% in ever since.

Latte break at the corner Starbucks.

[TitanTiger 20,511]

I'm tired. Going to bed.

Huck's lead down to 45-41 with 82% reporting. Looks like a nail biter.

What do they do if it's not 50%, have a run off?