Although small in number, Super Tuesday’s 30 party delegates total more than either Alaska or Vermont have regular delegates (not to mention New Hampshire).
Advertisement
What are people voting for?
The Virginia Department of Elections said approximate figures late Tuesday show that about 800,000 Virginians cast votes in the Republican presidential primary. Of those, about 450,000 were in the Democratic primary and almost 660,000 in the Republican one. Although the Republican Party of Virginia initially wanted voters in its primary to sign a form stating they were Republicans, the party backed off the pledge after a public outcry, as well as criticism from GOP front-runner Donald Trump and his supporters.
Donald Trump is on the mind of voters in both parties as Virginians cast ballots for their pick for the Republican and Democratic nominees for president on Super Tuesday.
The first multi-state primary will either clear a path for the presidential nominees, or muddy up the road to the White House.
Notices will be taped to voting booths of names of candidates who’ve officially withdrawn from Virginia’s primaries.
For live streaming results from the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, politics watchers can follow along with Politico’s live map or the Associated Press buzz map. So far, Trump has won 82 delegates, more than any other Republican candidate. How the distribution breaks down by state by party is a little complicated, but FiveThirtyEight provides a guide for understanding how delegates are apportioned by state on the Republican and Democratic sides.
In Virginia, there is a dual primary except when a president is running for a second term, or if the party chooses an alternative nomination process – such as a caucus. A total of 1,460 combined delegates are at stake (865 for Democrats, 595 for Republicans). Ted Cruz are trying to stop billionaire businessman Trump while Bernie Sanders seeks to prevent Clinton from getting a sizeable delegate lead. The Clinton campaign has focused on courting black voters in Virginia, lining up support from most African-American state lawmakers. Sanders won his home state of Vermont and Oklahoma, two of five states he was targeting for victory on Tuesday.
What does Super Tuesday mean for the Republicans? All of the states allocate delegate proportionally based on ballot counts or they use a “winner-take-most” system.
Jim Cahill, a retiree who lives in Chesterfield County, said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at an event in San Antonio.
Advertisement
Trump has defied expectations with his success in the race, but has also deeply anxious some parts of the Republican Party who believe that some of his outlandish pronouncements about immigrants and others might make him unelectable in the general election.
