Results: AK, GA, ID, MA, ND, OH, OK, TN, VT, VA
5:27 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Sarah Palin, at a caucus location in Alaska, speaks live to CNN and says she won't close the door to being a candidate if there is an open convention. So she's willing to be the nominee if she doesn't have to work for it.
5:30 PM PT (David Nir): In OH-03, it looks like Franklin County's results are as far along as the SoS's, so no change from what we noted before: 37-35 Kilroy over Beatty.
5:33 PM PT (David Jarman): Statewide in Ohio, the AP is reporting Romney 42, Santorum 36, Gingrich 14, Paul 6. They say only 7 precincts have reported, but this probably includes a big chunk of all early votes (or, since Romney already has 32K votes, those are some big-ass precincts). We have reports in all 16 of the state's CDs now, and Santorum is only winning 4 of them: OH-03, OH-04, OH-05, and OH-07. (4, 5, and 7 are all rural, blue-collar areas, but the 3rd is the newly-designed Dem vote sink in Columbus proper, dominated by Ohio State Univ. Are the college students there actually coming through for us on Operation Hilarity?)
5:39 PM PT (David Nir): Based on a canvass of available county websites (which includes Cuyahoga, Erie, and Lucas but not Lorain or Ottowa), Dennis Kucinich actually leads Marcy Kaptur in the OH-09 Democratic primary. Kucinich is at 54%, Kaptur 44%, and Veysey 2%. But this only covers the early vote (you'll see zero precincts are still reporting everywhere), and Cuyahoga (Dennis's home base of Cleveland) makes up 2/3rds of the total, even though it does not make up 2/3rds of the district. So these numbers aren't as good for Kucinich as they look.
5:41 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Calista Gingrich takes the podium, speaking at Newt's victory rally. She fails to tell the crowd they plan to celebrate their win with dinner at L'Auberge Chez Francois in Virginia.
5:41 PM PT (David Nir): This is amusing: Joe the Plumber is up only 54-46 in the OH-09 Republican primary against an absolute Some Dude. Not that "Joe" the "Plumber" really rates much higher—and not like he has any chance at all in November.
5:42 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Cally says she believes "my husband" will be the GOP nominee. Not sure if she means that she believes Newt will be the GOP nominee or if she means she believes Newt is her husband.
5:42 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Newt takes the stage to Herman Cain's Real American theme song.
5:43 PM PT (David Nir): Back to the OH-09 (D) primary, results have finally started coming in in Erie County, and hoo boy is Kaptur killing Kucinich there. With 1/3rd reporting, she's up 77-16!
5:44 PM PT (David Nir): Just to be clear in that last update, those numbers were for Erie County, not the 9th District as a whole. Still, it's a very bad sign for Kucinich.
5:44 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Newt begins his speech by attacking John King. Well not by name, but still, launches into an attack on the pundits. And now he says Republican elites are afraid of a Gingrich presidency. Uh. They aren't.
5:45 PM PT (David Nir): Parts of five counties make up OH-09: Cuyahoga (home of Cleveland), Lorain, Lucas (home of Toledo), Ottawa and Erie.
5:45 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Now Newt is giving us a history of the race, explaining his ups and downs. I guess if I have to hear about his ups and downs these are the ups and downs I'd prefer to hear about.
5:46 PM PT:
5:47 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Newt gives Mitt Romney a new nickname: A "Wall Street candidate."
5:47 PM PT (David Nir): OH-09 update (doing a manual canvass of available counties): With 1/3 of Erie in, and everything else absentees: Kucinich is up 49-48 on the Dem side, though that won't last.
5:48 PM PT: I love Callista's motorcycle helmet.
5:48 PM PT (Jed Lewison): Amazingly, this is the same tone of voice that Newt uses when he's explaining to his sexual partners why it's really their fault that he can't perform.
5:49 PM PT (Kaili Joy Gray): More liveblogging here.