Downtown Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania handed Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton big wins in Tuesday’s primaries. (via Flickr)

12:31 a.m. PST 4/27/2016: Watch speeches by the 3 victors in Tuesday’s primaries below.

11:58 p.m. PST: Take a look at the final results from Tuesday’s primaries according to The New York Times’ interactive map.

7:37 p.m. PST: The Associated Press has called Hillary Clinton the winner in Connecticut. The final results are as follows: Donald Trump takes all five primaries. Hillary Clinton wins Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Bernie Sanders wins in Rhode Island.

7:29 p.m. PST: The Associated Press brings us this report:

Donald Trump says that the Republican nomination contest is “over” as he turned his focus to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

“I call her crooked Hillary,” he said in a speech Tuesday in New York following his five-state sweep. He said of the Republican nomination contest: “it’s over. As far as I’m concerned it’s over.”

The AP adds that Trump is calling himself the GOP’s “presumptive nominee.”

Meanwhile, Clinton has begun to edge ahead of Sanders in the Connecticut primary, the results of which are still being calculated.

7:03 p.m. PST: Results in Connecticut are still rolling in, but analysis of Clinton’s prospects in the coming weeks has begun. The New York Times writes:

Clinton advisers said Tuesday’s final delegate tally would reveal not if, but when, Mrs. Clinton would win the nomination: either in early June, if she continues at her current pace, or as soon as the Kentucky and Oregon primaries on May 17, if she does better than expected in the coming weeks, once her support from more than 500 superdelegates is included. Superdelegates could switch their votes at any point, but Mrs. Clinton’s are widely considered to be staunch supporters.

Meanwhile, at a West Virginia rally Tuesday evening, Sanders reminded voters of his earlier pledge: He’ll stay in the race regardless of the results. The Times said he “made an unusually pointed appeal” to superdelegates, arguing that he has won more votes from independents and Republicans than Clinton and would be a stronger general-election candidate.

6:31 p.m. PST: NPR shares some insight on how Trump’s sweep will affect the Republican race:

Trump’s big wins Tuesday night make next week’s Hoosier State primary even more crucial for [Texas Sen. Ted] Cruz, his next closest challenger in the delegate contest. [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, meanwhile, cannot mathematically get the requisite number of delegates before the convention, instead counting on GOP delegates to flip his way at a contested convention by arguing he is the best general election candidate. Kasich has still won just one primary—his home state of Ohio.

6:22 p.m. PST: In case you missed it, Trump gave Sanders some advice earlier Tuesday on Twitter:

6:15 p.m. PST: Sanders has won Rhode Island. The Democratic race is still extremely close in Connecticut.

6:10 p.m. PST: Ted Cruz responded to his East Coast loss by looking toward Indiana:

John Kasich, meanwhile, sent out a series of tweets asserting that he would make the best president and asking for donations:

6:04 p.m. PST: Clinton has won Pennsylvania, the state with the most delegates at stake.

5:53 p.m. PST: A Maryland judge has ordered several Baltimore polling places to remain open until 9 p.m., following an injunction filed on behalf Senate candidate Rep. Donna Edwards. WBAL-TV reports:

Linda Lamone, state administrator of the Maryland state Board of Elections, confirmed the injunction and said the attorney general argued against it. She told 11 News that two precincts opened more than an hour late and 12 opened less than one hour late.

Political experts said Edwards needs the African-American vote in Baltimore City to win the primary.

“All citizens deserve equal rights and access to the polls,” Van Hollen spokeswoman Bridgett Frey said in a statement. “It is essential to our democracy that our election process be fair to all Marylanders. Our goal is to ensure that all of our fellow citizens have the full and unrestricted right to participate in free elections.”

5:48 p.m. PST: Trump has a message for his competitors, Cruz and Kasich. He told a CBS reporter outside of New York’s Time 100 Gala:

“They have no way to get there, there’s no highway, there’s no anything and they really should drop out of the race. They have no way of getting there. I’m millions of votes ahead—many millions of votes ahead and I’m hundreds of delegates ahead. … They really should drop out and we will unify the party.

5:44 p.m. PST: Clinton has won Delaware, according to The New York Times’ election results report.

5:37 p.m. PST: CNN has reported that Trump has taken Rhode Island and Delaware, making him the winner of all five Republican primaries. Clinton is currently ahead of Sanders in Delaware and Pennsylvania; Sanders is ahead of Clinton in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

5:13 p.m. PST:The Associated Press reports that Trump has won in Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and that Clinton has won in Maryland. From The New York Times:

Pennsylvania will award only 17 delegates to the winner of the popular vote statewide; it will send an additional 54 unbound delegates to the convention in Cleveland, all of them free to vote for their own preferences. There were 38 at stake in Maryland, 28 in Connecticut, 19 in Rhode Island and 16 in Delaware.

For the Democrats, there were 210 delegates at stake in Pennsylvania, 118 in Maryland, 70 in Connecticut, 33 in Rhode Island and 31 in Delaware.

Rhode Island results are starting to come in.

2:50 p.m. PST: The New York Times has posted an update on Sanders’ campaign, reporting that the presidential candidate will stay in the race until this summer’s Democratic convention, regardless of the results of Tuesday’s primaries:

“If we are sitting here and there’s no sort of mathematical way to do it, we will be upfront about that,” Tad Devine, Mr. Sanders’s senior strategist, said in an interview. “If we have a really good day, we are going to continue to talk about winning most of the pledged delegates because we will be on a path toward it. If we don’t get enough today to make it clear that we can do it by the end, it’s going to be hard to talk about it. That’s not going to be a credible path. Instead, we will talk about what we intend to do between now and the end and how we can get there.”

The Sanders campaign made it clear that even if it is forced to “reassess” the likelihood of Sanders winning the nomination, he will remain in the race. “Reassess does not mean that his message, that we think is the most powerful message, is going to change,” said Devine.

Sanders is behind Clinton in the polls for four of the five primaries held Tuesday, although polls have failed to predict primary winners in the past.

2:35 p.m. PST: If you’re voting in Tuesday’s elections, this might be worth noting before you whip out your phone for a celebratory voting-booth selfie: Some states, including Pennsylvania, have harsh restrictions on photography in voting booths. But that could change, thanks to a recent amicus brief filed by Snapchat last week in New Hampshire. The Huffington Post reports:

A federal judge struck down New Hampshire’s ban on ballot photos last year, and the state is appealing that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. Under the law, voters faced a $1,000 fine for sharing a picture of their ballot.

In its amicus brief filed Friday, Snapchat argued that the state’s ban violates the First Amendment.

The New York Times adds that supporters of the photography ban are “trying to preserve the secrecy of the ballot and stave off any attempts at buying votes,” but opponents of the ban feel that First Amendment rights outweigh those concerns:

In its court filing, Snapchat called ballot selfies and other photographs a key part of how the youngest generation of voters participates in the political process, and said they would be a key driver of more participation.

“It is precisely because a ballot selfie proves how a voter has exercised her franchise that it is an unmatched expression of civic engagement,” it said. “There is, simply put, no substitute for this speech.”

Snapchat also presented itself as a news-gathering operation, arguing that restricting its ability to gather user-generated content infringes on its watchdog function. Limiting those rights cannot be justified when the state could not point to specific instances of vote-buying, Snapchat argued.

If you are vote today but can’t leave the house without your smartphone, check out this handy list to see what restrictions may be in place at your polling station.

1:22 p.m. PST: Alongside the presidential primaries, numerous local elections are taking place on the East Coast today. Residents in Baltimore, still reeling from the death of Freddie Gray and the protests that followed, will be voting on the Democratic nomination for mayor. Reuters writes:

While the Republican Party and other parties also held primaries, the Democratic race’s winner almost certainly will win November’s general election because Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to one in Baltimore, about 40 miles (60 km) northeast of Washington.

DeRay Mckesson, a Truthdigger, is among those running for the mayoral nomination.

Additionally, Marylanders with felonies on their records have an opportunity to cast a ballot Tuesday, since “an estimated 40,000 Marylanders with felonies on their criminal records were restored their right to vote” in March. Baltimore activists have noted the connection between disenfranchisement and racial inequality, as Vice reported last year:

Nearly two thirds of those who can’t vote because of a felony conviction in Maryland are black, more than a third of Maryland’s state prison population comes from Baltimore, and [Freddie] Gray’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood has the highest incarceration rate in the state.

Although this is a momentous step for Maryland, the impact of this change will likely remain unknown as voters’ criminal records are not disclosed on voter registration.

12:50 p.m. PST: Reports are surfacing of illegal electioneering activities occurring at a polling place in Philadelphia:

Pennsylvania law outlaws any form of electioneering within a polling place. Daily Kos reported a similar incident during the Massachusetts primary election in March:

Outside a polling station, with his large police presence blocking voters from entering in a precinct showing strength for Bernie Sanders, [Bill] Clinton can be seen and heard with a megaphone, visibly approximately 20 feet from the polling station, expressly thanking “those of you who are supporting Hillary Clinton.”

If you are having similar issues with misleading electioneering, let us know on our Facebook page, or email us with video and/or photo evidence at [email protected].

11:45 a.m. PST: All eyes are on the East Coast as five states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania—hold presidential primaries. What to know as voting begins:

1. The pressure is on in Pennsylvania. Of the five states, it has the largest number of delegates up for grabs. Polls show Trump and Clinton with strong leads in the state. On the GOP side, however, the Pennsylvania primary is a little different: 54 of the state’s 71 delegates are unbound, meaning that they are essentially free agents, with the ability to make or break Trump’s nomination. ABC News breaks it down:

In total, 71 delegates are up for grabs for the Republican candidates. The candidate who garners the most votes in the primary gets 17 of the delegates, who are bound on the first ballot to vote for them at the GOP convention this summer. These 17 bound delegates are made up of three RNC members and 14 members of the state Republican Party.

Then, there are the remaining 54 delegates, which are elected directly on the GOP primary ballots handed out Tuesday in each congressional district without being bound to a candidate, meaning they are up for grabs at the convention. Voters in each of Pennsylvania’s 18 districts will pick three delegates to represent them at the GOP convention on Tuesday’s ballot.

The Democratic candidates have a much more straightforward process, with 210 delegates up for grabs, 189 of which are pledged delegates whom voters pick on the ballots. The remaining 21 are superdelegates that are picked by the party.

2. Closed primaries strike again. Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland all hold closed primaries. Rhode Island has a “semi-closed” system, in which unaffiliated voters can vote however they desire, but become a member of the party they vote for until they “disaffiliate,” a process that takes 90 days. Additionally, voters already registered with a particular party must vote within that party during the primary. Following a turbulent primary election in New York last week, many are beginning to question the closed-primary system.

3. The Kasich and Cruz effort to team up against Trump is already failing. The two candidates shocked many with Monday’s announcement that they were joining forces in “a last-ditch effort” to keep Trump from getting the Republican nomination. But less than a day after announcing their alliance, it began to fizzle. The New York Times reported:

Mr. Cruz trumpeted what he called the “big news” in Indiana, a state that appears pivotal to stopping Mr. Trump from winning a majority of delegates. “John Kasich has decided to pull out of Indiana to give us a head-to-head contest with Donald Trump,” he said.

But at his own campaign stop in Philadelphia on Monday, Mr. Kasich tamped down Mr. Cruz’s triumphalism. Voters in Indiana, Mr. Kasich said, “ought to vote for me,” even if he would not be campaigning publicly there. He added, “I don’t see this as any big deal.”

Trump is predicted to win all five primaries today, adding pressure to both the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.

Here’s a page to watch as election results roll in.

—Posted by Emma Niles

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#2016 election#bernie sanders#connecticut#delaware#donald trump#east coast#election results#hillary clinton#john kasich#maryland#pennsylvania#politics#primary#rhode island#ted cruz