Polling stations closing in Florida, first of 5 states voting on Super Tuesday #3

Florida is also the first state  to see its polling stations closing at 7 PM EST. Voters also cast ballots in Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina. Turnout was reported to be high in a number of areas, including Missouri, Ohio and the Chicago suburbs of Illinois.

Donald Trump won all nine of the delegates in the Northern Mariana Islands’ winner-take-all GOP caucus.

Florida

One of the big victory primaries for delegates. Democratic candidates are vying for the lion share of 214 delegate votes and Republicans for 99 delegate votes. Both primaries are closed which means only party registered votes can poll for candidates.

Marco Rubio’s wife helped out at campaign HQ in Miami

Google Trends had Sanders leading in the primary

There were a small number of voter complaints in south Florida town when Donald Trump’s name was missing from the ballot.

Even the candidate himself weighed in

Florida election officials told the Associated Press that Republican presidential front-runner Trump’s name was not left off ballots because it is a closed-primary state, which means only registered Republicans would get a ballot listing Trump and the other GOP candidates. Independent voters can’t vote in the primary.

Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher told AP some residents in Jupiter, Florida who were voting in municipal elections and complained when they didn’t see Trump’s name on the ballot. Bucher said none of the other presidential candidates were listed on those ballots either.

Florida’s Secretary of State Ken Detzner sent out a statement reassuring voters that Trump had not been left off any presidential ballots.

It was the state of Florida that was ridiculed worldwide after election problems during the 2000 presidential recount.

Illinois

The former president appeared with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle outside a polling place on Chicago’s South Side Tuesday morning, according to NBC.

“I want to help stir up voter interest, get the biggest possible turnout,” Clinton said after shaking hands and posing for photos outside Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School in the Hyde Park neighborhood, according to NBC News.

When asked about Bernie Sanders’ apparent surge in Illinois polls, Clinton made a distinction between the two candidates for the Democratic nomination.

 “This should be a race for president. There is a blame candidate and a responsibility candidate in this race. I’m betting the responsibility candidate will win,” said Clinton

The former President also made a stop earlier in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side, greeting young chidren and voters flanked by Congressman Danny K. Davis as well as Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

“It’s a big election and you know there’s been a lot of activity, so I just wanted to be here on Election Day,” he said.

“Chicago has been really good to me and our family”, he added. “I love coming here and I thought it would the best place to be on Election Day.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont) was accompanied by Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Rahm Emanuel last year. Part of Sanders’s strategy in Illinois has been mobilizing those disappointed with the tenure of Emanuel, a Clinton ally whose approval ratings have dropped to all-time lows.

Missouri

An 87-year-old retiree from St. Charles, Missouri told AP he cast his vote for Trump and his first vote for a Republican. He has voted for Democrats since the  Harry Truman administration.

“I think the man is well qualified for the simple reason that he he’s got a lot of money. Nobody’s pushing him,” said Norman Hagan. “He’s well acquainted with different types of businesses. This country is a business, and I think he’d be well qualified to run it.”

Hagan said he had serious concerns about the democrats, “Hillary in particular.”

Sanders is aiming for victory in Missouri, and hopeful about wins in Illinois and Ohio.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, where a controversial new voter identification law was in use for the first time, voting rights advocates were on alert for problems.

A spokeswoman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections told The Washington Post late in the day that primaries were running smoothly.

A student at North Carolina State University, Elijah Morgan, is not a registered Democrat or Republican but he voted for Rubio.

“I don’t love him as much as I’d like to. You know, like, if the bar for candidate that I’d like to vote for is here, Rubio’s here and everybody else is much below that,” said Morgan, 21, an electric engineering student. He said he is hoping for a contested GOP convention this summer.

“I would prefer that outcome over Cruz or Trump. I really don’t like Cruz. I think he’s dishonest. Smarmy, kind of…I think that (Trump) stand for everything I stand against,” he added.

Campaigning at a North Carolina polling place at midday, Clinton urged her supporters to come out to vote, despite polls showing her leading in a number of races, according to the Washington Post.

Ohio

In Ohio, Republican presidential candidate Ohio governor John Kasich cast his vote. Kasich was leading in the polls in Ohio.

“Where I came from, we always hear about these stories, but the stories could be about you, too. This one just happens to be about me,” said Ohio Governor, John Kasich (R). “To have started here as an aid, going all the way back to Nixon, all the way back to church, all the way back to my family, and then to come in here today and cast a vote for yourself for President of the United States …it is pretty remarkable.”

Ohio voter William McMillen told AP he voted for Donald Trump today because Trump is a “businessman” who “could make money” for the country. Trump’s abandonment of his party’s free-trade policies is resonating with voters across the industrial Midwest.

During a campaign stop in Ohio today, Sanders said Clinton “stood with the big money interests,” while he stood with “the working people of this country,” according to AP

Earlier in the day, police in Cleveland arrested an armed poll worker.  The man got into an argument with a fellow poll workers and pulled out a .380 pistol out of his backpack, according to Cleveland police.  He didn’t point the gun at anyone, but verbally threatened people.

Cleveland police spokeswoman, Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said the man faces charges of aggravated menacing, carrying a concealed weapon and having weapons under a disability, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.  The man also faces a marijuana possession charge as police found a small amount of the drug in his pocket when he was arrested. He was not formally charged yet.

There were no injuries reported but officials have not said whether the incident disrupted voting as the man was taken into custody.

“We want to assure everybody that voting is being conducted as usual,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “It’s safe to go and vote.”

The Board of Elections released a statement later in the afternoon saying the worker was fired.

This marks the first presidential election without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act. The act passed on August 6, 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson was a landmark piece of federal legislation which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down crucial components of the act in a case called Shelby County v. Holder, when it ruled that states with histories of voting-related racial discrimination no longer had to “pre-clear” changes to their voting laws with the federal government. Immediately following the Shelby ruling, 16 states passed laws that made it harder for people to vote including Alabama, Texas and Virginia.