The huge gap between Democratic and Republican primary turnout in Wisconsin became fully defined as the mass of votes poured in late Tuesday night.

With 97 percent of precincts reported according to the Associated Press, the votes counted in the Democratic primary totaled just about 1.1 million. The Republican primary turnout was just more than 400,000.

This occurred in a battleground state -- Democrat John Kerry beat President George W. Bush there by just 1 point -- which also conducted an "open" primary Tuesday. Wisconsin doesn't register voters by party, so any voter, regardless of personal partisan affiliation, could vote in either party's primary.

The fact that the race for the Democratic nomination between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York remains much more competitive than the Republican contest that has been virtually locked up by Arizona Sen. John McCain may be something of a factor, but this kind of proportional imbalance was seen in many states even when there was more of a Republican race.

It's not just that Obama received nearly three times more votes in easily winning the Wisconsin Democratic primary than McCain did in easily winning the state's GOP contest. McCain also received fewer than half the votes taken by Clinton as she finished a distant second in the Democratic race.

The turnout for Tuesday's primary also was considerably higher than for the heated Democratic primary held in Wisconsin on Feb. 17, 2004, in which Kerry out-competed then-North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. That contest drew a total of roughly 826,000 voters.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama proved Tuesday night, in the wake of his primary win in Wisconsin, that he knows one basic fact about national campaigning: If the TV networks are going to give you lots of free air time, take it.

Speaking at a packed rally at a sports arena in Houston -- where he shifted his campaign in advance of the key Texas primary scheduled for March 4 -- Obama acknowledged the win in Wisconsin (which gave him a nine-event winning streak in primaries and caucuses held after the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests). But he mostly gave his stump speech, in typically dynamic style, that ran to about 45 minutes ... and which some networks carried at length.

While Obama's comments about Arizona Sen. John McCain -- the virtually certain Republican nominee -- were not new to him, they did create a bit of a sense of a long-distance debate. McCain earlier in the evening, in remarks to supporters in Columbus, Ohio, following his own Tuesday win in Wisconsin, had leveled barely veiled criticisms at Obama as too inexperienced -- especially on defense and foreign policy matters -- to be president.

"I revere and honor his service to this country, he is a genuine American hero," Obama said of McCain, who was a Vietnam War POW. "But when he embraces George Bush's failed economic policies, when he says he's willing to send our troops into another 100 years in Iraq, then he represents the policies of yesterday and I want to be the candidate of tomorrow. And I'm looking forward to having that debate with John McCain."

While Arizona Sen. John McCain won an easy win over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Wisconsin Tuesday, he was unable to stem one of the most persistent trends of the presidential nominating season: the huge advantage that Democratic candidates have had at turning out voters in all but a very small number of states.

With just more than half of precincts reporting, roughly 520,000 votes had been counted in the Democratic primary -- to just a bit more than 207,000 on the Republican side. This occurred in an "open primary" state, meaning that voters, regardless of partisan identification, could vote in either party's primary.

CQ Politics' Jonathan Allen contributed the following:

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama continued to show strong appeal to non-traditional Democratic primary voters in today's Wisconsin primary, which does not register voters by party and therefore held an "open" primary.

Exit polling showed that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton actually edged Obama, 52% to 47%, among white Democratic voters who made up just more than half of the Democratic primary electorate. But among independent voters, who were about a quarter of the Democratic primary electorate, Obama held a dominant 60-30 lead over Clinton. The crossover Republicans who participated in the Democratic primary -- about a tenth of the exit poll respondents -- favored Obama with 70 percent of their votes.

Clinton held a narrow edge among women voters, but Obama dominated among men voters by more than a 2-1 margin.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brushed past her defeat by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in today's Wisconsin primary, addressing an enthusiastic audience in Youngstown, Ohio -- in a state holding a key March 4 primary -- with a speech that made her familiar claims of being more experienced and better suited to be president than Obama.

"I want to talk to you about the choice you have in this election and why that choice matters," Clinton said. "It is about picking a president that relies not just on words but on work and hard work to get America back."

"We can't just have speeches. We've got to have solutions. And we need those solutions for America," she added.

"They need a president ready on day one to be commander-in-chief, ready to manage the economy and ready to beat the Republicans in November. With your help I will be that president," Clinton stated later in her speech. "One of us is ready to commander-in-chief in dangerous world."

CQ Politics' Grigs Crawford contributed on this article.

Arizona Sen. John McCain celebrated his victory in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary by stating that he will be the Republican nominee. McCain also made a clear effort to juxtapose himself against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the possible Democratic Party nominee, ignoring New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and taking shots at Obama's theme of change and level of foreign policy experience.

"I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history," McCain said in a barely veiled criticism of Obama, whom he did not mention by name. He also clearly alluded to Obama in describing an opponent who said he might bomb Pakistan, a U.S. ally -- a reference to Obama's comment last year that he would pursue al Quida leaders in Pakistan if they were located there -- but said he would negotiate with the hostile regime in Iran.

Arizona Sen. John McCain is the winner of the Wisconsin Republican primary, an outcome strongly suggested by early exit poll reports that showed him breaking even with challenger Mike Huckabee among the conservative segment of the state's Republican electorate -- the portion of the GOP base that has been most skeptical of McCain as the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Networks say Barack Obama held a lead over Hillary Clinton in exit polls, but not by enough to call the Democratic primary in his primary at this point.

CNN's early reports on exit poll results from today's Wisconsin primary indicate that some patterns that develop early on are holding steady.

* Barack Obama is dominating Hillary Clinton among the youngest Democratic voters, with exit polling showing nearly three-quarters of those 30 or under backing Obama.

* Clinton is the favorite of older Democratic voters, with 60 percent support among poll respondents over 60.

* Voters who say "experience" is the most important characteristic to them favored Clinton with a whopping 95 percent.

* Voters who say bringing about change is most important favored Obama by 77-20 percent.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that the economy was the top issue for voters in both parties in the upper Midwestern state, with 90 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans viewing the economy in negative terms.

CNN, reporting on exit poll data prior to the close of polls in Wisconsin, said conservative voters in the state split evenly between front-running Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. While this suggest McCain is still having some trouble closing the deal with conservatives who object to some of his issue stands and past efforts to distance himself from his party's establishment, it also suggests that Huckabee didn't get the overwhelming conservative support he likely needed to win today's primary in the state.

The likelihood of a McCain win appears reinforced by the numbers reported earlier by ABC News on Republican voters' ideological identification. Six in 10 GOP exit poll respondents called themselves conservatives, meaning of course that four in 10 didn't. And the less self-identified conservative the voters, the stronger McCain has done in early contests this year.

The Associated Press and the news networks have released some information from the early runs of exit poll tallies in the Wisconsin primary, and they appear to lend some mystery to who is going to come out on top in the Democratic contest.

According to an analysis by ABC News' Gary Langer, a sizable majority of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters are women -- and Hillary Clinton has been running stronger among women than men. The number of older voters is up, according to this analysis, and this is another group with which Clinton has done well. Almost half the Democratic voters said they made their candidate choice more than a month ago, and Clinton was still widely viewed as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination at that time.

As one would expect in a state where blacks are 6 percent of the total population -- and very sparse outside Milwaukee -- about 90 percent of Democratic exit poll respondents in Wisconsin are white. While Obama has done well in overwhelming white states that held Democratic caucuses, most of his strong showings in higher-turnout primaries have been in places with much larger African-American populations.

Sounds like advantage Clinton? But wait...

The ABC analysis also shows that candidate attribute most important to the most Democratic voters was "can bring about needed change" -- which happens to be the central theme of Obama's campaign.

And, according to the Associated Press, exit polling shows that there was an influx of independent and first-time voters -- both typically strong constituencies for Obama -- into the Democratic primary. "Independents cast about one-quarter of the ballots in the Wisconsin race between Obama and Clinton, and roughly 15 percent of the electorate were first-time voters, according to preliminary results from interviews at polling places," AP reported.

Guess we're going to have to wait for the real votes to come in. Polls close at 8 p.m. local time, 9 p.m. eastern.

But the idea of voting in today's primary appears delightful to plenty of Wisconsites, who according to anecdotal reports are braving bitter cold -- and snow that has piled up during the state's particularly brutal winter -- to crowd the polls.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported this afternoon that the election commission in Wisconsin's biggest city  had to respond to requests from some precinct officials for additional ballots because of unexpectedly high turnout.

A political blog on the Web site of the State Journal newspaper in the capital of Madison reported, though, that icy conditions were creating problems for some voters with disabilities. Madison was hit by a major snowstorm this weekend and, with a month of winter to go, has already set a new record for total snowfall in a winter season.

Recent temperature readings, according to Weatherunderground.com:

Milwaukee: 11 degrees (-3 wind chill)

Madison: 8 degrees

Eau Claire: 3 degrees (-6 wind chill)

Green Bay: 4 degrees (perfect football weather!)

Oh, by the way, the Democrats are also holding presidential caucuses in Hawaii. Latest temperature reading in Honolulu was 79 degrees.

No wind chill.

The places to which the Democratic presidential contenders quickly relocated after today's "Chesapeake Primary" said much about their campaign strategies going forward.

Barack Obama, whose victories today in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia ran his winning streak to seven contests in the seven days since Super Tuesday, went straight for Wisconsin -- site of a primary next Tuesday in which the Illinois senator will be strongly favored to win.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, by contrast, went to Texas, which has its primary March 4, and spoke to a rally in El Paso. Texas is the biggest state that has not yet participating in the nominating campaign, and now looms as a must-win for Clinton and her suddenly flagging campaign.

In the most expected results tonight, it looks like Barack Obama and John McCain are cruising to easy wins in the District of Columbia's primary.

With nearly half of precincts reporting, Obama had 76 percent of the D.C. vote to 23 percent for Hillary Rodham Clinton. McCain had 67 percent to 17 percent for Mike Huckabee.

Republicans make up just a tiny portion of the electorate in the black-majority, Democratic-dominated federal city, and D.C. has relatively small constituencies of conservative religious evangelicals and working-class blue-collar voters who have been sustaining the campaign effort of Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister with a populist political message. So D.C. was tailored made for McCain, who in many other states is still striving to set aside conservative voters' doubts about his "maverick" persona.

Obama's dominance among black voters as he bids to become the nation's first black president alone would have earned him an easy victory in D.C., where blacks make up nearly two-thirds of the population.

Poll closings were delayed in Maryland by 90 minutes because of a traffic-snarling ice storm, but media outlets waited milliseconds after 9:30 to call the Democratic primary for Barack Obama and the Republican primary for John McCain.

Obama's win, his sixth in a row since his virtual draw with Hillary Clinton on Super Tuesday, was presaged by his clear victory in Virginia, where polls closed at 7. While exit polling shows Obama winning across demographic boundaries tonight, his overwhelming support among black voters provides him a major building block. So after Obama clinched Virginia, his win in Maryland -- where blacks, in percentage terms, make up a third bigger share of the population -- became a no-brainer.

Clinton lost Maryland even though many of the state's political titans, including Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, stuck with her.

On the Republican side, Maryland's political demographics appeared to favor McCain and give Huckabee less room for an upset. The GOP electorate in the state, which has a Northeastern orientation, has a larger moderate segment than in states further south, including Virginia. McCain's well-known history as a Vietnam POW and strong supporter of sustaining the U.S. military effort in Iraq also likely gained him support from the large number of Maryland Republicans will military ties.

CQ Politics' Greg Giroux notes the following interesting twist concerning one of Barack Obama's congressional supporters from Virginia....

Rick Boucher, the 13-term House Democrat from Virginia's 9th Congressional District, endorsed Obama in late January. This makes him look very smart everywhere in the state... except his home district.

With about three-quarters of precincts reporting statewide, Obama led Hillary Clinton by 64 percent to 35 percent. He also had big leads in 10 of the state's 11 congressional districts. The one exception: the 9th District, where Clinton was leading Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio.

This outcome, though, is much more of a statement about the district's demographics than Boucher's influence. Clinton, even as her overall results have sagged over recent contests, has done best among the lowest-income voters. And the 9th District, in the rugged Appalachian hill country of southwestern Virginia, is the state's least affluent district.

In addition, Obama's dominance among black voters had its least effect in the 9th. Blacks make up less than 5 percent of the district's population, their lowest share in any of Virginia's districts. Blacks make up about a fifth of the state's total population.

With two-thirds of precincts counted in Virginia....

451,086 total Democratic votes

223,601 total Republican votes

The swollen Democratic primary ranks in Virginia's open primary appear to have provided a huge boost to Barack Obama in his easy victory over Hillary Clinton. Voters don't register by party in Virginia and are free to vote in either party's primary. And exit polling showed Obama was winning 66 percent to 33 percent among independents, who made up a fifth of the Democratic electorate in Virginia. He did even better — 70 percent to 26 percent — among Republicans, who made up nearly a tenth of respondents who voted in the Democratic primary.

Exit polling shows why underdog Mike Huckabee was able to make such a close race of it against John McCain in Virginia -- results that reflect that the less conservative the voter, the more likely he or she is to vote for McCain.

-- Two-thirds of voters who call themselves very conservative favored Huckabee.

-- Overall, roughly 70% of Republican exit poll respondents called themselves conservative, and Huckabee won about half of their votes.

-- Huckabee outran McCain big among the four in 10 GOP exit poll participants who called themselves born-again evangelical Christians.

-- Although McCain has a consistently anti-abortion voting record, he defeated Huckabee 64% to 24% in the exit poll among voters who said abortion should be legal. Two-thirds of the GOP voters said abortion should be banned, and Huckabee led among them by 58% to 36%.

The vote count in the Republican race in Virginia remains very close, but at least one network, CBS, says John McCain will pull out the win there.

With just less than three-fifths of precincts reporting, McCain had 46.9 percent of the GOP vote to 44.7 percent for Mike Huckabee, a difference of just less than 5,000 votes, according to the state Board of Elections' Web site. McCain was leading the vote count in seven of Virginia's 11 congressional districts.

Virginia becomes the latest state in which Democratic voters have been much more energized to turn out for their candidates than Republicans are for theirs.

With about a third of all precincts reporting, 153,161 votes had been recorded in the Democratic primary -- more than three-fifths higher than the 94,376 combined votes in the Republican primary.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this disparity is that Virginia does not register voters by party, and their primary therefore was "open," meaning votes of any political persuasion could vote in the party's primary of their choice.

For the sake of comparison, the last time each party held a competitive presidential primary in Virginia was in 2000 for the Republicans and 2004 for the Democrats. The Republican turnout in 2000 was 664,093. The Democratic turnout in 2004 was 396,181.

The primary disparity this year undoubtedly will whet Democratic strategists' ambitions to see if they can put Virginia in play this year, testing a GOP lock that has existed for more than four decades. The last Democratic to win Virginia for president was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and, as in most Southern states, Republicans by the 1990s rose to a position of dominance in Virginia. Democrats have been staging a comeback in recent elections, winning the past two contests for governor, the 2006 race for U.S. Senate and the battle of control of the state Senate in 2007.

But the Democrats would have to take a great leap forward to capture Virginia's 13 electoral votes in November. George W. Bush won by 8 percentage-point margins in the state over both Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

Barack Obama was running up big margins over Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., a major font of Democratic votes in a state where that party has become increasingly competitive in recent statewide elections. Obama had 69 percent of the vote in the city of Alexandria and 61 percent in Arlington.

Barack Obama is leading Clinton by a 2-to-1 ratio with about one-third of the vote in in Chesterfield County, an area south of Richmond that is the fourth most-populous jurisdiction in Virginia (behind Fairfax County, Virginia Beach and Prince William County).

In the Republican primary, John McCain is leading Mike Huckabee in that county by 49 percent to 43 percent.

While the networks didn't hesitate to call the Virginia Democratic contest for Barack Obama, they have held off on a Republican call - based on exit polling showing a close contest between front-runner John McCain and dogged underdog Mike Huckabee.

The two parties' contests have taken very different directions in the wake of last week's Super Tuesday voting spree.

Obama roughly broke even with rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Super Tuesday -- which appears to have energized those inclined to support him and who now see him as having a stronger chance of overcoming Clinton's status as the early favorite for the party's nomination. Over the past week, Obama has scored dominating victories in Saturday's Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state; in the Maine caucuses Sunday; and apparently in today's Virginia primary. He is favored to win today's primaries in Maryland and the District of Columbia, with the 8 p.m, poll closing times in those places near.

The GOP, on the other hand, appears engulfed in a wave of reservations over the emergence of McCain as the big leader in delegate votes locked up. This is especially true among those conservative voters who have long held doubts about McCain because of his efforts to position himself as a "maverick" Republican. Since Super Tuesday, McCain lost Saturday's Louisiana primary and Kansas caucuses to Huckabee, and -- in a controversial early call by Republican officials -- was declared winner of the Washington state caucuses with just 25 percent of the preference vote and an edge of less than 2 percentage points over Huckabee.

A competitive performance by Huckabee in Virginia would fit his campaign profile. The former governor of Arkansas and ordained Southern Baptist preacher has run best among Southern voters in general and among religious conservatives -- a major constituency in the region -- in particular.

While Barack Obama's huge advantage among black voters virtually sealed his projected victory in Virginia, it is very much worth noting that exit polls show a greatly diminished "racial divide" in his contest with Hillary Rodham Clinton. While Obama's huge edge in the black vote was offset to greater or lesser extents by white voters giving majorities to Clinton, CNN reports that Clinton's edge among white voters in Virginia was a statistically insignificant 51 percent to 48 percent.

That also enabled Obama to erase another longstanding Clinton advantage -- among women voters -- that had helped her stay even or slightly better with Obama through the Super Tuesday primaries last week. CNN reported exit poll results showing Obama ahead among Virginia women voters, 58 percent to 42 percent.

The networks wasted no time after polls closed in Virginia to project a win for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Since exit poll blunders in past election years have made media outlets cautious in using exit polls alone to project victories, the quick call suggests yet another in the string on one-sided wins that Obama has scored in the days since Super Tuesday.

It also looks like a harbinger for Obama wins in the night's other two contests, in Maryland and the District of Columbia (where polls close at 8 p.m.) in the regional event known as the Chesapeake Primary or the Potomac Primary.

Early exit poll readings showed Obama, who is seeking to become the nation's first black president, again dominated among African-Americans in Virginia, taking 90 percent of their votes. And among the three places voting today, blacks make up the smallest population share in Virginia: 19 percent, compared to 28 percent in Maryland and 65 percent in D.C.

Here's are the winners of the presidential nominating contests held so far in February:

Democrats

Tuesday, Feb. 5 (Super Tuesday)

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Primaries: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee.

Barack Obama

Primaries: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Utah.

Caucuses: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and North Dakota.

Winner Still Undetermined

Caucuses: New Mexico

Saturday, Feb. 9

Obama

Primary: Louisiana

Caucuses: Nebraska, Washington state

Sunday, Feb. 10

Obama

Caucuses: Maine

Republicans

Friday, Feb. 1 - Sunday, Feb. 3

Mitt Romney

Caucuses: Maine

Tuesday, Feb. 5 (Super Tuesday)

John McCain

Primaries: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma.

Mike Huckabee

Primaries: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee

State Convention: West Virginia

Romney

Primaries: Massachusetts, Utah.

Caucuses: Alaska, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota.

Saturday, Feb. 9

Huckabee

Primary: Louisiana

Caucuses: Kansas

McCain

Caucuses: Washington state

It is inarguable that Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee each had an outstanding day on Saturday. Obama trounced Hillary Rodham Clinton in Nebraska, the state of Washington and Louisiana. Huckabee -- trying to emerge as a bona fide alternative to front-runner John McCain before the latter achieves the major number of delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nomination -- ran rampant in Kansas, was clinging late to a narrow lead in Louisiana, and trailed McCain narrowly in Washington.

The one caveat is that both candidates were running on turf that, as had been seen in earlier events, was favorable to them.

The Nebraska Democrats, Kansas Republicans and both parties in Washington held caucus events Saturday. Caucuses traditionally are conducive to strong showings by candidates with strong activist bases, which is true of both Obama and Huckabee. So it's not surprising they did well in those contests.

The Louisiana primary also was tailor-made for both of these candidates. Obama, who has dominated the African-American vote in voting so far as he seeks to become the nation's first black president, ran in a state in which roughly a third of the residents and a larger percentage of the Democratic electorate are black. Huckabee's strongest showings during the primary and caucus season also have been in his native South, where his background as Southern Baptist minister and his socially conservative views appeal to large numbers of the region's evangelical Christians.

With neither party's nomination locked down by the Super Tuesday results, the campaign trail makes its next stops in four states this Saturday and one on Sunday -- with three events next Tuesday in the so-called "Potomac Primary."

To get a sense about how much more driven Democratic voters have been to go to the polls during this nominating campaign than Republicans, get a load of these numbers from New Jersey....

With nearly all precincts reporting, nearly 1.1 million voters participated in the state's Democratic primary, which Hillary Rodham Clinton won by 54 percent to 44 percent for Barack Obama. That was double the roughly 550,000 turnout in the Republican primary, which John McCain won by 56 percent to 28 percent to Mitt Romney.

The dropout of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani may have been a bit of a mitigating factor in the Republican race, as he was expected to be highly competitive in New Jersey. Giuliani, who strongly endorsed McCain after he withdrew from the race following his loss in last week's Florida primary, took 3 percent.

Hillary Rodham Clinton won fewer Super Tuesday events than Barack Obama, but she won the two biggest prizes, scoring a projected victory in California to complement her victory in her home state of New York. Obama's biggest prize was his home state of Illinois, followed by Georgia.

John McCain wrapped up a big night with wins in California, the night's biggest prize, and Missouri, two winner-take-all delegate states.

Oklahoma Democrats, like their partisan partners in other primary states, turned out in unusually strong numbers for a primary that Hillary Clinton won by 55 percent to 31 percent for Barack Obama.

With nearly all precincts reporting, total votes in the Democratic primary was slightly more than 400,000. The turnout for the Feb. 3, 2004 primary was just 302,385, even though the state was hotly contested by the winner, former Gen. Wesley Clark; runner-up John Edwards, then a senator from North Carolina; and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Turnout for Tuesday's Republican primary in Oklahoma was 320,410.

CQ Politics' Marc Rehmann reports:

Exit polls show John McCain with a significant lead among almost every income bracket. On the Democrat side, Clinton and Obama are neck-and-neck, with lower-income voters supporting Clinton and higher-income voters supporting Obama. If income is an indication, Clinton would be projected the favorite by a small margin, since more voters are in the lower-middle income bracket than higher-middle income bracket.

Excerpts from Arizona Sen. John McCain's Super Tuesday night speech:

"Tonight, my friends, we've won a number of important victories in the biggest primary"

Enthusiasm among supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton has driven turnout way up in Democratic presidential contests throughout the campaign, but the upswing was incredibly dramatic in today's Delaware primary, which Obama won by 53 percent to 42 percent.

The combined votes for all Democratic candidates (including those on the ballot who have already dropped out) totaled 95,979. The turnout for the Feb. 3, 2004 Delaware Democratic primary, which also took place before the party's nomination was decided, was 33,291 (with John Kerry, the Massachusetts senator and eventual nominee, winning easily).

Tuesday's turnout for the Delaware Democratic primary was nearly double the 50,062 who participated in the Republican primary, won by John McCain with 45 percent to 33 percent for Mitt Romney, 15 percent for Mike Huckabee and 4 percent for Ron Paul.

Jessica Benton Cooney assisted in this report.

AP says Hillary Clinton won a closely contested race in Missouri over Barack Obama. With 81 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton had 50 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Obama.

CQ Politics' Marc Rehmann reports:

Exit polling from Democratic Party precincts across the nation show a familiar flavor: The lower the income, the more likely a voter is to vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, while wealthier voters favor Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

The Democratic front-runners continue to trade wins on Super Tuesday and income brackets across the country aren’t showing much difference from previous primaries. Polling shows the states of Oklahoma, Missouri, Delaware and New Jersey to be in line with the rest of the nation.

The exceptions so far include victories for Clinton and Obama in their home state. Clinton also did better among more affluent voters in New Jersey, while Obama did better among lower-income voters in Georgia and Alabama. The latter two states have large black constituencies that went heavily for Obama, helping him easily win both states..

Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took the Republican caucuses in North Dakota and Minnesota. That would be his third and fourth wins of the day, after taking primaries in his home state and in Utah.

Romney, who has racked up most of his wins during the GOP campaign in caucus rather than primary states, also is leading in Montana's caucuses. CQ Politics' Marie Horrigan reports:

Arizona Sen. John McCain has had the biggest day with seven wins so far, in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Oklahoma. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appears to have revived his campaign with wins in Arkansas and Alabama, and wins projected by at least one news outlet in Georgia and Tennessee, along with his victory at the West Virginia Republican convention.

CQ Politics' Marc Rehmann reports on the varying support at different income levels between the two Democratic contenders, according to exit polls:

"Clinton does better in lower-income brackets.Obama wins the middle-class bracket and leads in income brackets that make up about 60 percent of the voting population, according to exit poll responses."

CNN says Sen. John McCain held his home state of Arizona, to go with earlier declared wins in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois and Oklahoma. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has won in his home state and Utah.

Reports from local media say turnout for caucuses in Colorado were so packed that attendees could not all fit in the building in some locations, and caused some chaos at precincts in Arizona.

A fast-moving snowstorm caused problems for some voters in Illinois.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama continued his roll through Super Tuesday's caucus states with a win in Minnesota. He previously won caucus events today in Kansas and  North Dakota, along with his primary wins so far in Illinois, Delaware, Georgia, Alabama and Connecticut.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has wins today in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

CQ Politics' Greg Giroux reports on a key congressional primary in Illinois, which sets up a rematch of a close 2006 race:

Illinois Democrat Dan Seals won a resounding primary victory to earned a rematch against Republican Rep. Mark Steven Kirk in the state's 10th Congressional District, anchored in politically competitive suburbs north of Chicago.

Seals -- a business consultant who took a respectable 47 percent of the vote against Kirk in 2006 -- has 83 percent of the primary vote against Jay Footlik, a former aide to President Bill Clinton who emphasized his experience in foreign policy and who portrayed himself as a more electable candidate than Seals. Though that vote takes in most of the tally from suburban Cook County only, there's no way that Footlik can make up that huge deficit in the 10th's other county, Lake, which is north of Cook.

Barack Obama has won a close primary race with Hillary Clinton in Connecticut, according to projections by CNN, CBS and Fox News. He has deprived Clinton of a Northeastern sweep; she previous was projected the winner in her home state of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and earlier this year won the New Hampshire primary.

Obama also won today's primary in Delaware, located at the edge of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

The Connecticut competition between Obama and Clinton began in earnest after Chris Dodd, the state's senior U.S. senator, ended his longshot presidential campaign following a poor performance in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won contests today in West Virginia, Alabama and his home state of Arkansas and is in a neck-and-neck race in Georgia, rallied supporters with a rebuke to ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- who suggested during the Super Tuesday campaign that Huckabee end his longshot campaign and allow Romney to rally conservative voters to stop front-runner John McCain.

"It's a two-man race -- and we're in it!" Huckabee boasted.

Latest network calls:

Barack Obama scores in North Dakota caucuses and Utah primary. Obama has put significant effort into winning in Democratic events in states typically Republican-dominated in presidential primaries, hoping to underscore his claim that he has stronger potential for cross-party outreach that does Hillary Clinton.

On the Republican side, John McCain claimed another delegate winner-take-all contest with a close CNN-projected win in Oklahoma. Mitt Romney won a highly expected win in Utah, where most residents share his Mormon religious faith.

Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski, who represents Illinois' 3rd District in and around Chicago, is running well ahead in a primary election in which he faced three opponents -- one of whom criticized the congressman as insufficiently liberal on a range of issues.

With more than half of the vote counted, Lipinski had 55 percent of the vote in the 3rd, which includes the southwest side of Chicago and some suburbs south and west of that city. That was well ahead of runner-up Mark Pera -- a local prosecutor who had rallied liberal activists' support -- had 24 percent of the vote. The remaining vote went to lawyer Jim Capparelli (13 percent) and local Mayor Jerry Bennett (9 percent).

The returns were a setback for liberal activists who had promoted Pera's challenge and helped him raise more than $600,000 (including personal money Pera loaned his own campaign). Pera criticized Lipinski for opposing abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research and said he hadn't vigorously opposed the Bush Administration on Iraq.

Yet Lipinski, whose father William O. Lipinski preceded him in Congress (1983-2005), touted a bipartisan-minded record and drew upon a formidable political organization.

Barack Obama has been projected by Fox News as the winner of the Kansas Democratic caucuses. Obama put significant effort into the state, where he has family ties and the endorsement of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a rare and popular Democratic statewide officeholder in the strongly Republican-leaning state.

Obama had 69 percent of the vote with 50 percent reported.

An important thing to remember about the Democratic contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is that the winner in a state has to run up a sizable majority to dominate its delegate allocation. Under the proportional allocation rules that govern Democratic contests in every state, the runner-up gets a consolation prize of a sizable share of a state's delegates as long as the contest is close.

With Clinton and Obama trading victories in the states that have been decided tonight, the national delegate division is likely to be quite close, making it unlikely that either will be able to claim strong front-runner status at the end of the night.

Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, just said neither candidate will wrap up the nomination tonight, and that the contest will go on for several more weeks.

CNN projects a John McCain win in New York, a big winner-take-all delegate prize on the Republican side. McCain also is the projected winner in winner-take-all contests in Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware, and also in Illinois. Mitt Romney is the projected winner in Massachusetts, not a winner-take-all state. Mike Huckabee has winner-take-all wins Alabama and West Virginia and a win in the modified winner-take-all state of Arkansas.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, added New Jersey to her Super Tuesday win column after earlier claiming her home state of New York, as well as Arkansas and Oklahoma. Barack Obama also has claimed four states: his home state of Illinois; Alabama and Georgia, where he enjoyed huge support among African-American voters behind his bid to become the first black president; and Delaware.

CQ Politics' Rachel Kapochunas passed along the following from Hillary Clinton's campaign Web site, which claims a win in Massachusetts (although this has not yet been called by the networks). The campaign's release takes slaps at Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who endorsed Obama and campaigned for him this week, and other leading state figures - included Sen. John Kerry and Gov. Deval Patrick, who also aligned with Obama:

"One of the biggest surprises of the night is Massachusetts.

Despite the fact that Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry were actively supporting and campaigning for Obama, Hillary Clinton won the state.

Despite the fact that the Governor of Massachusetts endorsed Obama, Hillary Clinton won the state.

Despite the fact that Obama visited Massachusetts just last night, Hillary Clinton won the state.

This is a strong victory and shows that Hillary Clinton has strength in places where Barack Obama was expected to win."

Barack Obama won today's primary in Delaware, after gaining projected wins earlier this evening in his home state of Illinois and in Georgia. With 81 percent of precincts reported, Obama led Hillary Clinton 50% to 45% in a contest that opened to outside competition after Delaware's favorite son candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, made an early exit from the Democratic presidential contest.

Clinton also has three projected wins tonight, in her home state of New York, her former home state of Arkansas and Oklahoma.

MSNBC and AP say Mike Huckabee has won today's primary in Alabama. If that is so, it helps validate his strategy of aiming for wins in the South, his home region, which has large numbers of evangelical Christian voters (who make up a big part of his political base).

Huckabee also has a projected win in his home state of Arkansas, where he served more than a decade as governor, and won a narrow victory over Mitt Romney in the West Virginia GOP convention this afternoon.

CNN projects a Hillary Clinton in New York, the state she represents in the US Senate. That's her third win tonight after projected victories in Arkansas (where she was first lady during Bill Clinton's long tenure as governor) and Oklahoma. Barack Obama has scored projected wins in Illinois, which he represents in the Senate, and Georgia.

Democrats report very strong turnout in New Mexico. New Mexico Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon issued the following statement to assure voters they would get a chance to cast their ballot:

"Given the amazing amount of people turning out to polling sites across the State of New Mexico, we would like to re-assure voters that as long as you are in line by 7:00 p.m. [local time] we will ensure that everyone is able to cast their ballot.

"We are experiencing tremendous voter turnout throughout the State of New Mexico and are very pleased that New Mexicans are going out to the polls in such large numbers to have their voice heard on who they want to be the Democratic nominee for President."

CQ Politics' Marc Rehmann provides this look at exit poll numbers on income brackets in today's New Jersey primary:

In the upper middle class brackets, Clinton does better than Obama. Obama does better in lower income groups. McCain does better than Romney in every income bracket and shines in the $200,000 or more bracket.

Exit polling shows a close race among Democrats in Missouri, with a significant "gender gap" in play.

Obama had support from 54% of men voters in Missouri to 36% percent for Clinton, but men made up only about two-fifths of the Democratic respondents. Clinton had a smaller lead -- 50-45 among women voters -- but their much larger numbers of voters apparently have kept her in the running there.

Democrats

Obama: Georgia, Illinois

Clinton: Oklahoma, Tennessee

Republicans

McCain: Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey

Romney: Massachusetts

Huckabee: West Virginia

Hillary Clinton is the projected winner in Tennessee, says MSNBC.

It was no coincidence that Clinton segued right to a rally in Tennessee on the night of Jan. 26, when she lost to Barack Obama in South Carolina. Clinton had strong establishment support in the state. And African-Americans, whose support has been a big factor in much of Obama's success this year, are 16 percent of the Tennessee population, one of the smallest shares in the South.

By comparison, Obama dominated in South Carolina, where blacks make up 29 percent of the population, and tonight in Georgia, where blacks are 28 percent of the population. In each of those states, black voters, who overwhelmingly favor the Democratic, made up just more than half of the party's primary electorate.

Barack Obama's current political stardom as a senator from Illinois overrode the family ties of Hillary Clinton, who grew up in suburban Chicago. Exit polls show Obama taking two-thirds of the vote among women voters and a slightly higher percentage among men in Illinois.

CQ Politics' Leah Nylen assisted in this report.

John McCain was helped in Connecticut's primary by endorsements by Independent (and former Democratic) Sen. Joe Lieberman and former New York City Mayor (and 2008 presidential race dropout) Rudy Giuliani. But he started out with a solid base, having edged George W. Bush in the state's 2000 GOP primary.

But McCain did much better tonight with his projected win in Illinois, where he was trounced by Bush in 2000.

CNN and MSNBC say Obama, as expected, won his home state of Illinois, while Clinton took Oklahoma.

CNN calls Connecticut and Illinois for McCain; Romney called in his home state of Massachusetts.

MSNBC say McCain also won in New Jersey.

While actual vote totals are slow coming in from Georgia, exit poll numbers suggest Barack Obama dominated the state's primary over Hillary Clinton. Obama took 64 percent among women (who were 63 percent of the Democratic respondents) and 69 percent of the vote among men.

Obama's ability to galvanize African-American voters around his bid to be the first black president -- evident in an earlier win in South Carolina -- was also a big factor in Georgia, where the exit polls show he took nearly 90 percent of the black vote (which in turn made up roughly half of all Democratic exit poll respondents)

As has been the case in earlier-voting states, Obama ran best among younger voters, and in Georgia, among middle-aged voters. Clinton continued to run best among older voters, who she split with Obama in the state. 

From AP, via CQ Politics' Lauren Phillips:

"Clinton was winning only a slight edge among women and white voters, both groups that she has won handily in earlier contests, according to preliminary results from interviews with voters in 16 states leaving polling places. Obama was collecting the overwhelming majority of votes cast by blacks, and Clinton was gaining the votes of roughly six in 10 Hispanics."

Networks, based on exit polling, say Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won Georgia, the first primary state to close its polls on Super Tuesday night. Obama's overwhelming support among African-American voters, who make up major portions of the Democratic voting base in many Southern states, was expected to give him a major edge in this state.

There is no call in the Republican contest in Georgia though. This was one of the states where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney fought hardest to try to break the momentum Arizona Sen. John McCain established with his Jan. 19 win in South Carolina and his Florida win on Jan. 26.

CQ Politics' Rachel Kapochunas reports....

Primary voters in Georgia Tuesday experienced waits at the polls of up to two-and-a-half hours and unsually long lines. But whether this was because of unprecedented turnout -- or a bottleneck created by a state law requiring voters to display valid photo identification -- is in dispute.

Georgia Election Protection spokeswoman Clare Schexnyder said that 30 to 40 percent of the calls received by her organization Tuesday were from voters frustrated by long lines at the polls. Schexnyder said that her reports suggest there was an insufficient number of express computerized machines to check voters in and provide them with voting cards. Schexnyder said that many poll workers are checking voter ID information on computers for the first time in this election.

"It doesn't bode very well for a general election," Schexnyder said. "This is a lesson learned."

The organization had not received any calls specifically regarding photo identification issues as of 5 p.m.

But People for the American Way's Democracy Campaign Director David Becker said that the day's long lines are directly related to the state's voter ID requirement, which Becker categorized as "restrictive."

Becker argued that bottlenecks are being created when voters are forced to "go through their wallets and find one of these very few forms of ID," in addition to a shortage of check-in machines. Voters must present a government-issued photo ID or obtain a free Voter ID card from their county registrar or the state Department of Driver Services.

Becker's group contends that the photo requirement is unnecessary and creates "barriers" for voters who don't have the specific identification required.

Becker's group was satisfied with the state's ID law before it was changed in 2005 to require photo identification. Many opposed the change, including civil rights groups who believed it could disenfranchise lower-income black voters who are among the least likely state residents to have photo ID.

But supporters say the law helps to further secure the state's elections process and limit fraudulent voting.

The office of Georgia' s Secretary of State, Karen Handel, said Tuesday that as of 5:30 p.m., not a single report had been received regarding problems related to the photo identification requirement. The office attributed the long lines to high voter turnout.

Attributing long lines to problems associated with photo ID check-in "could not be further from the truth," said Matt Carrothers, spokesman for Handel.

"Lines are not indicative of problems at the polling place," Carrothers said. "Lines are indicative of heightened interest in both parties' nomination contests."

Handel estimated turnout as high as 40 percent in the state.

It turns out that Mike Huckabee's camp wasn't just dealing with the John McCain folks in securing his second-ballot majority victory today at the West Virginia Republican presidential nominating convention.

A press release from the presidential campaign of Texas Rep. Ron Paul states that many of his supporters at the convention shifted to Huckabee on the second ballot -- in exchange for a promise that the Huckabee campaign would give Paul three of the 18 at-large delegates at stake in the winner-take-all West Virginia event.

Huckabee actually trailed Mitt Romney by 41 percent to 33 percent in the first-ballot vote, with 15 percent for McCain and 10 percent for Paul, whose last-place finish eliminated him from competition. But the added support of Paul backers -- combined with a shift among many McCain supporters determined to prevent a West Virginia win for Romney, their candidate's leading opponent for the Republican nomination -- boosted Huckabee to the 52 percent majority on the second ballot that clinched the event for him, with Romney at 47 percent and 1 percent sticking with their allegiance to McCain.

Mike Huckabee entered the West Virginia Republican presidential convention with a solid base, as religious conservatives to whom the former Southern Baptist preacher has targeted his strongest appeal are well-represented with the state GOP's ranks.

But it appears some good old-fashioned political horse-trading between the Huckabee camp and supporters of John McCain aided Huckabee in overcoming the 41 percent to 33 percent lead Romney held over him in the first ballot at the convention in West Virginia's capital city of Charleston.

McCain, who did not compete heavily in West Virginia, took 15 percent on the first ballot, finishing ahead of only Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who had 10 percent and was eliminated from contention under the convention's rules. Yet the final tally in the second-ballot vote showed McCain plummeting to 1 percent, while Huckabee shot ahead of Romney by 52 percent to 47 percent -- giving the former Arkansas governor the majority he needed to clinch victory in a winner-take-all contest that netted him the state's 18 at-;large delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention.

The Associated Press, reporting from the scene, said most of the McCain delegates shifted to Huckabee -- preventing Romney, McCain's top rival for the Republican nomination, from claiming victory in the first result among the 21 states holding Super Tuesday Republican primaries and caucuses today.

Huckabee, who scored his first victory since the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, has recently been engaged in campaign hostilities with Romney. The former Massachusetts governor has publicly suggested that longshot Huckabee drop out of the race in order to allow Romney to galvanize support among Republican conservatives, many of whom continue to express skepticism or outright opposition to McCain despite the latter's emergence as the putative front-runner for the party's presidential nomination. Huckabee has angrily rejected Romney's contention as "arrogant."

Romney, Huckabee and Paul all personally appeared and spoke to the delegates at the West Virginia convention. McCain did not.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee slipped past ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on the second ballot at the West Virginia Republican presidential nominating convention, taking a narrow majority to overcome Romney's first-round plurality and claim the state's 18 at-large national convention delegates in the winner-take-all contest.

Details to follow.

Mitt Romney led the first-ballot vote with Mike Huckabee second and John McCain third at the West Virginia Republican Party presidential nominating convention this is under way this afternoon in the state's capital city of Charleston -- this first voting event among the 24 states participating in "Super Tuesday."

But because Romney's 41 percent did not meet the majority-vote threshold to clinch winner-take-all contest for the 18 at-large delegates at stake today, the convention has moved on to a second round. Huckabee had 33 percent in the first round, McCain had 16 percent and libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul had 10 percent.

The West Virginia convention is the kind of party activist-dominated event in which Romney has done well during the campaign, even as he has struggled against McCain -- now the putative front-runner for the Republican nomination -- in primaries that have had higher delegate yields and received more media attention. This is because Romney, with by far the best-funded campaign among Republican contenders, has been uniquely capable of setting up campaign organizations in virtually all states. McCain, who is using strong name ID built during a long career in national politics to offset his much-smaller campaign treasury, has concentrated on big primary states and essentially written off caucus and convention states such as Wyoming, Nevada and Maine, which Romney won.

It is not surprising to see Huckabee running well among West Virginia Republicans. The former Southern Baptist minister's strongest appeal is to religious conservatives, of which there are many within the state's Republican ranks.