Outside the Beltway

Potomac Primary Results

James Joyner · Tuesday, February 12, 2008 · 3 comments

With 0% of the precincts counted, OTB projects John McCain and Barack Obama as the winner of the Potomac Primaries held today in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia based on pre-election polls. Actual returns will be posted below with some frequency as they’re available.

Despite my having filled out the paperwork to change my registration to my new address more than a year ago whilst renewing my driver’s license, I’m somehow still on the voter rolls at my old address. Given that the outcome in Virginia is hardly in doubt and traffic’s backed up from here to Maryland because of freezing rain, I didn’t bother to drive out of my way to the old polling place to vote. So sue me.

Jeff Quinton is live-blogging the Maryland returns and half the staffs of Newsweek and the Washington Post will be videoblogging on all three contests here.

UPDATE: The early returns via radio have Obama ahead and McCain and Huckabee neck-and-neck in Virginia. Whether that’s a function of which precincts are counted (most of Virginia’s geography is rural but most of its population is centered in the DC suburbs and exurbs of Northern Virginia and the military enclaves on the coastline) or of the weather depressing McCain turnout remains to be seen. It would be a “miracle” indeed if a bizarre weather phenomenon gave Huckabee a win.

UPDATE (Alex Knapp): Matthew Yglesias has a terrifically concise analysis of the Virginia exit poll results:

Exit polls are showing a huge win for Obama. Fifty-six percent of voters were women, and fifty-eight percent of them went for Obama. College graduates went for Obama. Non-graduates went for Obama. New voters went for Obama. People who’d voted previously voted for Obama. Basically, everyone voted for Obama.

Also, the exit polls seem to be holding up–at least for the Democratic race in VA. CNN’s exit polls have it at 62.44% Obama – 37.66% Clinton. With 64% of precincts reporting, the numbers are: 62% Obama – 37% Clinton. Not bad.

UPDATE (James Joyner): Virginia was interesting for a couple of hours but McCain won comfortably. Obama blew Clinton out across the board.

Continuing Alex’ analysis above, CNN’s Political Ticker weighs in with “Exit polls: Obama stealing Clinton’s base.”

Barack Obama did well with Virginia Democrats across both race and gender lines, and seems to be eating away at Hillary Clinton’s backbone of support: women. According to exit polls, Obama won nearly 60 percent of the female vote, a demographic that has carried Clinton to success in past primaries. Clinton even fared worse among men in Virginia — more than two-thirds chose Obama.