OBAMA WINS WASHINGTON D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY, TWO IN A ROW SO FAR TONITE!
updated 25 minutes ago
Obama claims Virginia, CNN projects, Win's 6th In A Row!
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Story Highlights
- NEW: Obama wins Virginia, GOP race too close to call, CNN projects
- High turnout reported in Virginia, Maryland, District of Columbia
- 238 Democratic delegates, 119 total GOP delegates at stake
- Clinton downplays Obama's string of victories last weekend
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama will win the Virginia Democratic primary, CNN projects.
Sen. Barack Obama will win the Virginia Democratic primary, CNN projects.
The polls closed at 7 p.m. ET, and the Republican race between Sen. John McCain and Mike Huckabee remains competitive.
Polls in Maryland and the District of Columbia were supposed to close at 8 p.m. ET, but a judge extended voting in Maryland for an extra 90 minutes due to poor weather and heavy turnout.
In Virginia, Obama led Clinton 61-38 percent, early returns showed.
Obama also finished ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton in all five of the Democratic contests last weekend.
Voters are participating in the so-called "Potomac primaries" -- named for the river that separates Virginia and Maryland and flows past the nation's capital.
At stake in the primaries are 168 Democratic delegates and 113 total GOP delegates.
Conservative voter turnout was high in Virginia, helping Huckabee there, exit polls showed.
Evangelical voters made up more than 40 percent of the electorate and were breaking for Huckabee nearly 3 to 1 over McCain, exit polls showed.
In 2000, 55 percent of Virginia GOP voters identified themselves as conservative. This year, those voters made up 68 percent of the electorate, and they were breaking for Huckabee over McCain by 16 percentage points.
In Maryland, turnout was anticipated to be about 40 percent, which is above normal according to Ross Goldstein, deputy administrator for the state's Board of Elections.
However, Goldstein said some anticipated inclement weather later in the day could lower turnout numbers.
Virginia election officials also predicted a higher than normal turnout of 30 to 40 percent for the state's primaries.
High turnout was reported in the northern part of the state and in Richmond and Charlottesville, according to Virginia Board of Elections spokeswoman Susan Pollard.
There were reports of 45-minute lines in counties around Richmond, she said.
Mark Coakley, the general register for Henrico County said the turnout in his Richmond-area county was record breaking.
"It's our first ever-dual primary so regardless it would be record breaking," he said.
At an Alexandria, Virginia, polling station, election officials said they were seeing a steady turnout.
"We're getting good, consistent turnout. We started out with over 20 people at the gate when we opened up the doors at 6 a.m.," election official Chris Tatem said. "We're averaging maybe a hundred an hour of people that push through here, which is good."
At around 1 p.m. Tuesday, the polling station's precinct chief Tom Fina said, "We're almost at the same level as we were last year for the Virginia elections."
"Today with almost 700 votes before the day is much more than half over, we are running considerably ahead of the past experience that we've had," he said.
High winds swept through the state on Sunday and Monday knocking out power in some areas and forcing some polling stations to relocate. The storms knocked out power to 50 stations, election officials said, but power had been restored to all but eight of them. Generators were used to restore power at some locations.
District election officials did not give an estimate of overall turnout, but two precincts in Washington ran out of ballots, according to Bill O'Field, a spokesman for the District Board of Elections.
Several other precincts had to have more ballots delivered due to higher-than-expected turnout.
The demographics in Tuesday's primaries suggest Obama could pull off a political hat trick over Clinton. However, the senator from New York said Obama's recent success doesn't faze her because future primaries will swing her way.
The devil is in the demographics for Democrats. Maryland, Virginia and especially the District of Columbia have large numbers of African-American and affluent white voters. Obama has fared well in the past with both groups.
Previous exit polls indicate Obama also has done well with independents voting in Democratic contests, and Virginia's open primary permits independents to cast ballots for either party.
In total delegates, Clinton tops Obama 1,157 to 1,145, according to CNN estimates. The breakdown paints a slightly different picture, as Obama leads 989 to 923 in pledged delegates, and Clinton is winning among superdelegates 234 to 156.
Superdelegates, a group of almost 800 Democratic Party officials and leaders, are not required to make their votes public and are free to change their minds.
In the Republican race, the question is whether McCain can start to unify the Republican party behind his all-but-certain nomination.
McCain is leading the only other Republican candidate in the race, Huckabee, 723 to 217 in total delegates, according to CNN estimates. A GOP candidate needs 1,191 delegates to secure the nomination.
But Huckabee is coming off a big win Saturday in Kansas, where he won by double digits, and another narrower win in Louisiana.
McCain edged out the former Arkansas governor in the Washington caucuses, but Huckabee is questioning the result.
Huckabee has done well with Christian conservatives and rural voters, and McCain's performance last weekend suggests the GOP, particularly conservative voters, are not quite ready to unite behind him.
McCain, however, scoffed at the notion that the former Arkansas governor could close the over 500-delegate gap that separates the two GOP contenders.
"We are doing fine. We have 700 and some -- close to 800 delegates, and the last time I checked Gov. Huckabee has very few," McCain said.
"So I think I am pretty happy with the situation that we are in." He said Tuesday he was "guardedly optimistic" about the Potomac primaries.
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