Montana, South Dakota Primaries: Exit Polls

SOUTH DAKOTA

Polls close at 9 pm ET.

Most of South Dakota is in central time, where the polls close at 8 pm ET. The West River precincts are in mountain time.

Closed primary. 15 delegates at stake.

MONTANA

Polls close at 10 pm ET.

Open primary. 16 delegates at stake.

Early exits from AP:

Preliminary results from exit polls and phone surveys conducted for The Associated Press and television networks in presidential primaries Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota:

DEMS ENERGIZED OR DIVIDED?

Did the long Democratic primary season leave the party energized or divided? Perhaps appropriately, voters in both states were fairly evenly split on the question. In both states about half said the lengthy contest energized the party, about four in 10 said it divided the party, and the rest said they didn't know or skipped the question.

RANCOR SUBSIDING?

The surveys indicated Hillary Rodham Clinton's backers were a little less hostile toward Barack Obama than in most other recent primaries.

In six out of the last seven primaries, at least 60 percent of Clinton voters said they would be dissatisfied if Obama won the nomination -- including 72 percent in Mississippi, 73 percent in West Virginia and 77 percent in Kentucky. But barely half of Clinton's backers in Montana and South Dakota said they would be dissatisfied with Obama as the nominee. Tuesday's results were comparable to the exit poll results in the Super Tuesday primaries on Feb. 5.

In both states about a third of Clinton voters asserted they would vote for Republican John McCain or stay home in November rather than vote for Obama.

RATING HONESTY

About seven in 10 in both states called Obama honest and trustworthy. Nearly as many said that about Clinton in South Dakota but barely half in Montana called her honest and trustworthy.

ECONOMIC WORRIES

More than a third in both states said the recession or economic slowdown has affected their families a great deal and close to half said it has affected them somewhat -- comparable to exit poll results from earlier primaries.

Given a list of three issues, voters in both states were most likely to say the economy was the most important issue facing the country. A little more than half said that in South Dakota while about four in 10 said so in Montana.

Comments

[noneIn2008]

The Obama speech is posted on Drudge

[ChiefJudgeGascoigne]

I find it totally unbelievable that anyone who supported Hillary Clinton would vote for McCain. Three little words "Roe v Wade"

[Softnsweet]

They will all get over it. If Obama would have lost I would have felt the same way. I said many times I would vote for McCain. I know now that I never could.

[bygollymissmolly]

About seven in 10 in both states called Obama honest and trustworthy and yet a third of Hillary supporters say they will vote for McCain or stay home. That doesn't compute.

Any Hillary supporter who won't vote for Obama just because Hillary lost does not deserve the right to vote. If they honestly think that John McCain would be better for this country than Obama, then they should, by all means, vote for McCain. They should also switch parties.

[MinasTirith]

Damned straight it doesn't compute.

Those who, out of spite, vote for McCain, deserve what they will get.

They rallied around Clinton because she purportedly was NOT like McCain or the Republicans he represents (albeit a tense union).

Now they would rather rally around the very man who represents the same miserably failed policies of BushCo as manifest in McCain?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.... That is what we'd get with McCain... Same ideology, same policies, yet those who would vote for him somehow would expect things to be different (aka, better) than they are now under the first measure of the insanity vote for a twice elected Bush...

[robXdion]

Just shows what lengths people will go to to keep the WH white. That's what this is all about. They need to be honest with themselves and stop hiding under the layers of excuses.

[Peteyman]

Reminds me of that line in "Waiting on the world to change"

"when you trust your television
what you get is what you got "

[Strywever]

No. The people who say that are women who voted for a feminist icon and not policy. They give feminism a bad name.

[4wehttam]

As a woman I truly don't understand it as well. As angry as they are, voting for McCain goes against EVERYTHING their OWN candidate stands for. She and Barack have essentially the same policy beliefs and to choose someone who is the TOTAL opposite of that is beyond me.

I'm hoping they get over it soon, but if they don't that is a shame for our country and sends a message that they would rather cut of their nose to spite their face. I heard some of them say they want to send a message to the party leaders, but THIS IS JUST NOT THE WAY TO DO IT. Organize a protest, march, vote against party leaders, run for office, sign petitions.....do anything else. This is outrageous!