Today, February 9th, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will be going head-to-head for delegates in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state and the Virgin Islands. On Sunday the race moves to Maine. Of these five contests, four are caucuses (Louisiana is a primary).
On the Republican side John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul will compete in primaries in Kansas, Louisiana and Washington state.
See the latest election results from today here
Louisiana
Low turnout expected in Louisiana primary:
But even with all that late activity, Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said he does not expect to see the overall turnout edging past 15 percent. ''I hope I am 100 percent wrong,'' he said.
During the early voting period, which ended last week, 23,375 of the state's 2.8 million voters cast ballots, a major factor that led Dardenne to call for a low turnout.
Washington state
Thousands of ballots have already been thrown out in Washington, according to the AP:
Thousands of ballots being cast in Washington's presidential preference primary are invalid because voters aren't signing a ballot oath identifying themselves as a Democrat or a Republican, Secretary of State Sam Reed said Friday.
Early on Saturday people were scrambling to find the location of their caucus, according to the Seattle Times. The problem: The Democrats online "caucus finder" is apparently overwhelmed.
Delegates at stake:
Dems:
A total of 158 delegates [are] at stake in the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington. Caucuses in the Virgin Islands offered three more.
GOP:
The Republicans have 74 convention delegates at stake.
Read more here
Advantage?
Does either Democratic candidate have advantage in today's contests. According to ABC News:
Saturday begins a campaign stretch where the contests appear to favor Obama, D-Ill., who has fared better in states with caucuses (as will occur Saturday in Washington state, Nebraska, and the Virgin Islands) and with large African-American populations (Louisiana, which holds primaries).
Today's Big Democratic Contest
Washington state, with its 78 pledged delegates, is today's big prize, according to the New York Times.
Delegate Count
News organizations differ over whether Obama or Clinton currently have the advantage in terms of delegates.
AP says Obama leads by 2.
ABC, meanwhile, concludes:
Clinton [is] holding a narrow, 77-delegate advantage with more than 2,000 already awarded -- an edge that could be erased by the time all of Super Tuesday's votes are counted. Other media outlets have the race even tighter.
Read the New York Times explanation of why media outlets can't agree on the delegate account.