Update (TL): Hillary now leads in Texas by 1,800 votes. All the commenters agree, whatever happens in Texas tonight, Hillary will stay in until Pennsylvania. She has the momentum now. Most of those deciding who to vote for in the last three days picked her. She's got 2/3 of the Latino vote, which makes up 1/3 of all Texas voters.

By Big Tent Democrat

OHIO

Clinton 640,000 (57%)(WIN)
Obama 459,000 (41%)

51% reporting

TEXAS

Clinton 885,000 (50%)
Obama 867,000 (49%)

44% reporting

Update: (TL)Comments now closed here.

By Big Tent Democrat

CNN calls Rhode Island for Hillary. J. went for dinner. Treat this as an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

NBC seems upset that Hillary Clinton is not likely to drop out of the race tonight. They really seem to not want to cover this race anymore. I think the solution is simple. Do not cover the race NBC.

Believe me, a lot of us will not complain if we never hear Tweety, Punchline KO Olbermann, Pumpkinhead Russert and Blowdried Brian Williams speak another word about it.

Do us all a favor NBC, black out the Democratic nomination race from your network.

We're not quite at half-time, but who do you think will win Ohio and Texas now?

And what about the lawsuits? Barack Obama sued to reopen some polls in Cleveland, and Hillary reportedly held a media call about suing over voter intimidation in Texas.

I'm sorry to see Mike Huckabee go. But, he just dropped out. McCain is the Republican nominee. He has at least 1191 delegates.

Huckabee will now be a uniter.

Ohio's polls close in 30 minutes. Big Tent Democrat and I will be live-blogging the results and other election news coverage. We'll start when the polls close.

You can comment same as always in the comment section below. You also can send us live messages through the software. Only comments you post below will appear on the site.

I'll be putting up some polls up. Big Tent's posts will say BTD and mine will be TL.

The live blog stays below the fold so that it can be a bit wider than the front page allows. Just click on the "There's More" button or bookmark the permalink to go directly to it.

If comments hit 200, we'll start a new one.

CNN's Ohio exit polls:

Hillary is getting voters without college degrees. College educated voters are going to Obama. That's all they reported so far.

CNN's Ohio results page is here.
MSNBC's Ohio results page is here.

Update: Looks like the 3 am ad worked, Texas voters said Hillary is more able to keep our country secure according to CNN.

Big Tent has a first exit poll thread about the Independent vote here.

CNN now has this:

Hillary Clinton holds a two-to-one advantage over Barack Obama with Hispanic voters in Texas, while blacks are overwhelmingly supporting him in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary, according to CNN’s exit poll.

These early surveys provide a snapshot of the race, but are not conclusive on who will win this critical contest. Eighty three percent of blacks voted for Obama, while 16 percent supported Clinton, according to the exit poll. Meanwhile, 64 percent of Hispanics backed Clinton, while 32 percent went for Obama.

Update [2008-3-4 18:27:40 by Big Tent Democrat]: Conflicting exit polls -Marc Ambinder sez Clinton with "slim leads" in Ohio and Texas. NRO has two conflicting exits (meaning? trust neither?) - one has Obama winning both by 2, the other with Clinton up 2 in Ohio and tied in Texas.

Tonight's election coverage has started. We'll have several threads going, but here's one to post your comments about the media coverage of the results

Who's the biggest Horses As*? Who did you like?

What networks are you watching? I'm starting with CNN but I'll be switching back and forth between CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

By Big Tent Democrat

Via Mark Halperin:

The primaries in Ohio, Texas and Vermont were open to all voters, while in Rhode Island registered independents could choose which party's primary to vote in. In the Democratic primaries, independents were about one in five voters in Ohio, one in four in Texas, a third in Rhode Island and four in 10 in Vermont.

Somewhat higher than SUSA projected in Ohio and Texas. Seemingly advantage Obama. Though I must add that I think the reporting of "Independents" probably includes Republicans which puts it in line with SUSA's finding. Probably not advantage Obama.

I'm going to take a break here for a spell.

We're a few hours from exit polls and results.

How are you feeling about the candidates' chances? Have you changed your predictions since this morning?

What's making you most nervous?

I'll also put up a Media Horse's A*s thread around 7pm ET for you to rant about your least favorite anchors and pundits.

See you soon and yes, we'll be covering the results through the evening. I hope you'll join us. Those threads will open with all election-related comments welcome.

Bump and Update: The Texas Democratic Party sent out this directive (pdf)to both campaigns this afternoon cautioning against what I reported below. So they obviously heard it too, although the letter went to both campaigns, not just Obama's.

Campaign workers, volunteers and/or supporters have obtained copies of blank sign-in sheets for precinct conventions and are having them filed in now with the desire of turning them in once the convention gets underway. These sign-in sheets are invalid and will not be considered in determining the allocation of delegates. See Tex. Dem. Pty. Rule. IV(B)(6).

Update: The Austin Statesman is now reporting on the alleged violations, without specifying which campaign is complaining or allegedly violating the rules.

***

I'm receiving reports that contrary to Texas Democratic party caucus rules that preclude registration forms from being submitted before either 7:15 pm or the last vote at a precinct has been cast, Obama volunteers are handing out the forms at precincts today and asking people to fill them in and then collecting them. For Obama to submit the forms on the voters' behalf without the voter physically being present at the caucus would violate the rules.

The rules state:

More...