Tonight we're liveblogging primaries in five states, Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia, as well as runoffs in Arkansas and the special congressional election in AZ-08.
Click here for our guide to all the key primaries and runoffs, and stick with us as we cover all of tonight's interesting races.
Results: Arizona | Arkansas | Maine | Nevada | N. Dakota | S. Carolina | Virginia
8:00 PM PT (Steve Singiser): For those who, after the tobacco lobby won a victory last week, in California, began to doubt direct democracy, it is comforting to see the voters get it right sometimes. A tea-infused measure in North Dakota to abolish the property tax just got absolutely smoked tonight, losing at present by a 78-22 margin. The measure was so extreme that public worker unions and the Chamber of Commerce lined up on the same team to fight it. That...ahem...doesn't happen too often.
8:03 PM PT: The AP calls the AR-04 Dem runoff for state Sen. Gene Jeffress. As GradyDem once put it, Jeffress is running an 1870s-style campaign. And as I recall, Democrats didn't do too well for much of the 1870s.
8:08 PM PT (jeffmd): Early results are trickling in in AZ-08. All of Pinal County has reported, as has much of Cochise County. Doing a precinct comparison, Ron Barber is running about 6 points ahead of Obama; this would translate to him getting about 52% of the vote.
8:12 PM PT (jeffmd): Pima County just added its absentee votes in AZ-08, where Barber is running 7.4% ahead of Obama. Election Day votes will close this somewhat, but precinct votes were only about 4% more favorable to Kelly than absentees in Cochise County; Kelly will need much more than that to win.
8:16 PM PT (jeffmd): Santa Cruz is chiming in now too per the Arizona Secretary of State. Barber is running about 7 points ahead of Obama overall (who got 46.4% here), though this may close as more precinct votes are reported.
The counties are playing out as follows (Barber's vote share relative to Obama's):
Cochise: Barber +7.5
Pima: Barber +7.4
Pinal: Barber +4.5
Santa Cruz: Barber +6.3
8:18 PM PT (James L): I'm not sure what is up with this:
South Carolina Election Commission now says it is unsure who won Dem. S.C. 7th #bojsc7th Tinubu is close to defeating Brittain.
— @jsweeneyMN via TweetDeck
If you check out the SC Election Commissioner's
site, they're reporting the results as if Ted Vick wasn't even on the ballot, meaning that Tinubu is well above 50%+1. But Vick clearly
was on the ballot, and including him in the total pushes Tinubu below 50% and allowing Preston Brittain into a runoff. What gives?
8:20 PM PT (James L): Whoa, the AP just zero'd out Ted Vick's votes in SC-07, putting Gloria Tinubu at 52%. Does this mean that all of Vick's votes were disqualified? We'll look into it.
8:21 PM PT (David Jarman): In other non-Arizona news, the AP has finally called North Dakota's crazy right-wing ballot measures. Both Prop 2 (eliminating property taxes) and Prop 3 ("religious freedom") have been called for the "no" side, including a 78-22 vote in favor of keeping property taxes around.
8:28 PM PT: The AP has called the ME-Sen Democratic primary for state Sen. Cynthia Dill, who is beating former SoS Matt Dunlap 44-36 with 72% reporting. Still no call on the GOP side.
8:28 PM PT (James L): So, yeah: The AP has re-called SC-07 (D) – they previously called a runoff between Gloria Tinubu and Preston Brittain, but are now treating Ted Vick's votes as invalid, and are calling the nomination for Tinubu outright. A very curious turn of events.
8:32 PM PT (jeffmd): Pinal and Santa Cruz counties are fully reporting (both early and precinct votes) in AZ-08, and Barber is running 5 ahead of Obama in those counties. All in all, this should be about 51-52% Barber if trend holds.
8:35 PM PT: Huh, check this out. On the official candidate spreadsheet provided by the state Democratic Party to the South Carolina State Election Commission (available here), Ted Vick's name is literally crossed out, with a note saying "Withdrew 5/25/12." I still don't think you can erase votes cast for him after the fact.
8:43 PM PT (jeffmd): In AR-01, Scott Ellington holds a 259-vote lead over Clark Hall, with Baxter County outstanding. However, Ellington has a 69-31 lead in Baxter's EVs, and also beat Hall 47-39 in the first round. This one looks over, too.
8:44 PM PT: Move on to thread #4.