5:08 - I'm just posting a placeholder for the moment. If you want to get into the Idaho spirit in the meantime, listen to some Built to Spill and go buy something at Albertson's. Turnout seems pretty heavy across my area's polling stations so far.
5:11 - Another tidbit of information: as I was riding my bike around my county, I noticed no GOTV action or sign waving that usually occurs on election day. I probably just missed it but things do seem quiet. The weather is unseasonably warm here (my thermometer says 89!) and in a strange Idaho phenomena where these days are rare, it's possible that the nice weather caused people to be more apathetic and spend time doing recreational activities.
7:37 - After a brief nap, I'm pumped and ready to go for a long night of primary results. Apparently as I was asleep, a ridiculous scenario occurred at two precincts a few miles away from me because of a bomb threat (!). Everyone voting or in line had to be evacuated and it severely disrupted things there.
7:42 - Ben Ysursa, Idaho's Secretary of State, is predicting record low turnout thanks to new closed Republican primaries that shut out hundreds of thousands of conservative Independents from voting. “I hope I’m wrong, but I’m predicting 23 percent,” Ysursa said about 3 p.m. Tuesday, with five hours left in the voting day. “Turnouts are made between 5 (o’clock) and 8 o’clock, so we’ll see.”
"Turnout lagged at two large precincts in West Boise, where voters cast ballots at Ustick Baptist Church on McMillan Road.With two hours until polls close at 8 p.m., turnout was 10.4 percent of about 3,850 registered voters."
7:51 - If there's one thing that emerges from this primary season that is clean cut and easy to understand, it's the massive amounts of whining that are reverberating from the mainstream press (Spokesman Review and Idaho Statesman) about the shift from open to closed GOP primaries. They're basically publishing open editorials against it, implying that it's undemocratic and immoral.
7:56 - Down in the weeds results for the real Idaho politicos: how will the Paulite precinct captain revolt play out? Will a potential victory there force their platform to fall further off the deep end? The only activity I've seen in my area emanates from their side and there's a clear cut "Paul block" among voters that strategically positions the same yard signs in their lawn. There's even the possibility they'll take over the position of Kootenai County Sheriff.
8:00 - For all the eternal optimists out there, there are two extremely interesting Democratic primaries for you to watch that will make you excited for all of the right reasons. While the retirements of Brian Cronin and Nicole LeFavour were unfortunate and they will be sorely missed, there are two open House seats in the progressive bastion of District 19 that consistently sends up and coming Democrats to the legislature. This year is no exception and there are two rising stars who will most likely win that you should look out for in the results: Mat Erpelding and Holli High Woodings.
8:08 - The first results have started to trickle in and they are strange: Jimmy Farris only leads Clinkingbeard, a crazed criminal, by 7 votes and unknown and proud DINO Jack Chappell is still managing to recieve almost 30% of the vote against progressive hero Nicole LeFavour.
Mike Simpson is doing very poorly for an Idaho legend against teabagger Chuck Heileson and is posting up a lead of 18 points against him.
8:13 - These poor results for Simpson are coming out of the Idaho Falls area, which should be the epicenter of the uprising against him. Idaho Falls is the most ultra-conservative part of southeastern Idaho when it comes to its Republican Party politics and Heileson hails from Idaho Falls.
8:16 - Corrupt State Senator Monty Pearce of the Payette area, who held a lease for oil and natural gas exploration while writing legislation on the issue, is just barely managing to fend off a primary challenge from Matthew Faulks.
8:20 - The mainstream Republican State Senator John Tippetts is being teabagged by Scott Workman due to his fairly moderate stances and is losing by a twelve point margin at the moment in D32.
8:24 - Simpson has started to post up big margins against his opponent and is now at a whopping 66% of the vote. Presumable this is due to votes from D28 starting to trickle in, diluting the votes from the relatively strong territory for Heileson in the Idaho Falls area.
8:28 - Jimmy Farris truly is a pathetic joke of a candidate: with significant vote totals finally in to make judgement calls, he is only garnering 60% of the vote against a convicted felon who held up a Staples at gunpoint.
8:30 - Simpson's margin continues to expand: he is currently at over 70% of the vote against his hapless competitor. Idaho Falls could only deliver so much to the far-right wingjob and it appears that Simpson will cruise to an even stronger victory from here on out as Boise begins to report.
8:33 - Results have started to trickle in from the D19 Democratic primarypalooza! Mat Erpelding barely leads Troy Rohn by three votes and Holli High Woodings is down by a mere 14 votes against moderate, IEPA-endorsed Brad Goodsell.
8:35 - Former State Representative Brandon Durst is dispatching his primary opposition with ease with three quarters of the vote. He'll go on to face "moderate" State Senator Toryanksi in the fall, who was a major proponent of the ultra sound bill.
8:37 - Establishment favorite Democrat Hy Kloc is defeating his primary opposition and will go on to face Republican Graham Peterson for the open seat in the swingy district of 16 that recently turned a shade of blue six years ago.
8:40 - Three sitting comissioners in the Boise area are trailing, says Kevin Reichert: "It's early, but three sitting county commissioners are trailing: Ada commissioner Sharon Ullman (she has 46 percent of the vote, with 6 of 145 precincts reporting); and Canyon commissioners Steve Rule (47 percent) and David Ferdinand (35 percent). In Canyon County, 29 or 62 precincts are in."
8:43 - In a plethora of developing races, incumbent Republicans are being tossed out. There are so many primaries occurring on their side in a region of a state that I'm not well versed enough in to comment on but it looks like a "mainstreamer" bloodbath. Look for the GOP wing to become just a bit more nutty in the next session.
8:47 - Farris is underneath 60% against Clinkingbeard. My face is firmly in my palm and I'm embarrassed for my party.
8:50 - Insurgent candidate Workman is holding onto his lead over incumbent State Senator Tripett in D32. Pickett is currently leading incumbent Cameron in D27 for the State Senate seat. Corrupt incumbent Senator Monty Pearce has widened his lead against Faulks in District 9.
8:54 - In D19, Mat Erpelding has expanded his lead to a solid margin over the Idaho Statesman-endorsed Biology Professor Rohn and currently has a 15 point lead. Holli High Woodings has also opened up a six point lead against the Idaho Statesman-endorsed moderate Brad Goodsell.
9:00 - District 17 continues to show off its impressive trend to the left: while the other three swingy blue-tinted districts show massive Republican leads in turnout that are very traditional during primary season, Democrats are actually bringing out more voters out even though there are no competitive primaries there (53-47 D to R gap). D17 is quickly becoming a blue stronghold, albeit a different kind of one than D19.
9:03 - Creepy extremist Gresham Bouma currently leads moderate former Senator Shroeder for the Republican nomination to go up against Schmidt in his Moscow-based district. If Bouma is nominated, the Republicans will have blown a great pick-up opportunity as D5 has become quite a bit more swingy thanks to the addition of Benewah County.
9:07 - The young, promising Democratic Native American contender (Paulette Jordan) for the open seat being vacated by Tom Trail is barely squeaking out a victory against an unknown entity.
9:10 - It looks like Gresham Bouma will win the right to take on Senator Schmidt in November (he's posting up a 20 point margin), giving us an easy victory in a seat that is desperately needed. Republican extremism has managed to toss at least one seat away this election.
9:16 - Jimmy Farris' lead over the criminal Clinkingbeard has narrowed to a mere ten points thanks to new returns due to presumably less educated Democratic primary voters in northern Idaho.
9:18 - Fairly mainstream conservative incumbents Eskridge and Keough based out of Sandpoint along with Anderson, based out of Bonners Ferry, are managing to best their ultra-conservative opposition in a completely non-surprising result.
9:20 - Mat Erpelding and Holli High Woodings continue to expand their leads in the D19 primary. I feel safe in calling the race for House Seat A for Erpelding, who will be an excellent state represenative and a strong voice for progressive values in the legislature. Even though Woodings has opened up a ten point lead against Goodsell, calling the race now would be very premature.
9:46 - Paulette Jordan has opened up a large lead against Stivers and has sealed up the nomination to take on DeVries in November.
9:48 - Sorry to call it quits so early but I'm exhausted from AP tests and loads of homework. I might stay here to comment but I'm done updating the liveblog. I promise I will post a huge post-mortem diary that analyzes and answers a series of questions that this primary should answer for us. Things to look for: can Clinkingbeard pull an upset on Farris and make the Idaho Democratic Party look like a laughing stock? Will the pioneering and corrupt quasi-fascist wing of the GOP (Barbieri, Vick and Hart) in Kootenai County prevail over their mainstream opposition (Jorgenson, Fisher and Morse)? How large was Democratic turnout in districts "trending" towards us in Boise? How many mainstream incumbents will be primaried today?