Welcome to the Bernie News Roundup Live Blog & Open Thread in which I and other members of our merry band of misfits will do our best to provide news, analysis, opinion & other interesting musings related to the Oregon & Kentucky primaries. Please feel free to join in, though as always… site rules apply.
Polls are open in Kentucky at 6 a.m. ET/CT, and polls there close at 6 p.m. ET/CT (part of the state is in the Central Time Zone -- those polls close at 7 p.m. ET). ballots in Oregon must be received by 8 p.m. PT / 11 p.m. ET.
Both Kentucky and Oregon operate under closed primary systems in which only registered voters of each party can cast ballots in their respective primaries.
While Kentucky voters vote at traditional polling sites, no polls are actually open in Oregon. Instead, voters mail their ballots in via snail mail. Ballots were sent out two to three weeks before the primary and are due back by 8 p.m. PT. Last-minute voters can also drop their ballots off at designated locations. As of last Thursday, 564,804 ballots had been returned.
In the Republican race, 28 delegates are up for grabs in Oregon and most are distributed proportionally -- one delegate for every 4 percent of the statewide vote.
In the Democratic race, 55 delegates will be available in Kentucky and they will be allocated proportionally among candidates that get 15 percent or more of the vote statewide. In Oregon, 61 delegates are up for grabs and most will be allocated the same way.
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→What: Democratic and GOP primaries in Oregon, Democratic primary in Kentucky
→ CBSN election coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET
→ Where: Kentucky, Oregon
→ When: Polls will be open in KY from 6:00 a.m. ET/CT to 6:00 p.m. ET/CT (polls in Central Time Zone close at 7 p.m. ET) and voters must mail their ballots in by 8 p.m. CT in OR.
If Bernie Sanders is going to catch Hillary Clinton, he'll need to narrow the delegate gap -- significantly -- on Tuesday night.
Two Democratic presidential primaries are taking place: Kentucky, with 61 delegates up for grabs, and Oregon, with 74 delegates.
For Sanders, erasing Clinton's lead in pledged delegates (currently 1,722 to 1,424) will take winning about two-thirds of those that remain.
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1. Can Clinton win?
Kentucky should be a good state for Clinton. Her husband was the last Democrat to carry it in a general election, in 1992 and 1996, and she beat then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama there in 2008.
In
an attempt to avoid her mistakes in Indiana (where Sanders spent nearly $2 million to Clinton's $0 on the airwaves, and Sanders narrowly won), the Democratic front-runner has invested more time and money in the Bluegrass State.
She's held 11 campaign events over three visits in a two-week span.
"Everybody's ready to go vote," Clinton said in Paducah on Monday. "I'll tell you this: I'm not going to give up on Kentucky in November."
But Clinton's campaigned hard and still lost before -- most notably in Michigan.
Bernie Sanders will work around the clock to make sure Donald Trump is not elected president, regardless of whether the Vermont senator wins the Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign manager said Tuesday.
“Well, he certainly has said that he will do everything — he will work seven days a week, night and day, to make sure Donald Trump is not president, and I'm confident that he will do that,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told CNN. “Bernie Sanders, as you know, is a very effective campaigner on the stump.”
Weaver said Sanders has rallied millions of people, including young voters, independents and working-class people. “And I think he'll take the message to them that Donald Trump would be a disaster for working-class and middle-class families in this country,” Weaver continued. “Putting the Republicans back in control of Washington is not a good strategy.”
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Weaver insisted Trump’s assertion that the system is rigged against Sanders was wrong and reiterated that Sanders will not run as a third-party candidate and will support the nominee.
“And that’s what he’s gonna do,” Weaver said. “Trump obviously would like a third-party candidate on the left so that he could try to divide the vote and win. But I think what you're gonna see is unity to defeat Trump.”
He also suggested that the Sanders campaign is helping Clinton by refusing to bow out of the race early because they’re focusing on the issues that matter to voters.
“You know, as soon as this Democratic primary process is over, we're not gonna hear any more talk about the minimum wage. We’re not gonna hear any more talk about making college affordable or providing health care to everybody,” Weaver said. “It’s gonna be a mudslinging contest. The Trump people, the Republican Party, all their super PACS, are gonna engage in character assassination no matter who the nominee is, and that’s what it’s gonna be focused on. It’s unfortunate, but as long as there a Democratic primary process going on, people are talking about issues that are important not only to Democrats but to Americans as a whole.”
Kentuckians began voting at 6 a.m. Tuesday in a contentious Democratic presidential race and several other primary contests.
Turnout for the primary was expected to be light and as of 10 a.m., the Attorney General’s voter fraud hotline had received 11 calls from eight counties: Anderson, Barren, Breathitt, Fayette, Harrison, Jefferson, Madison and Rockcastle, said Attorney General Andy Beshear.
Most of the calls were about procedural questions, including the one from Fayette County. There was one complaint of vote buying or selling from Breathitt County, and three calls about electioneering from Jefferson, Madison and Rockcastle counties.
Tracy Merriman, elections manager for the Fayette County Clerk’s office, said Tuesday morning that there were no significant problems with polls.
“All precincts were up on time. There were a few issues with a couple of booths, but they all had at least one up and going on time,” Merriman said. Most of the calls have involved “voters showing up who are registered as non-partisans and realizing they don’t have anything to vote for today.”
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the caucus held on March 5 by the Republican Party of Kentucky so there will be no Republican presidential primary on Tuesday’s ballot.
The split voting could have an impact on voter turnout, said Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who added she anticipates about 20 percent of the state’s 3.2 million registered voters will cast a ballot.
Independents are not allowed to vote in Kentucky’s primary elections.
Teri Smith of Central Point dropped off her ballot days ago, but she returned on the last day to the curbside box with her "procrastinating" son's ballot. She's a supporter of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and so are her friends. But maybe not all of them. "Friends who want Trump are not telling me because they know my concern for social justice," she said
Dawn KC of Phoenix, Oregon, went inside to drop off her vote for Sanders, whom she says inspired her to apply to be a delegate and work to keep GMO foods out of school lunches. It took her to the last day to vote because she wanted to research the other races and issues. "We get fooled if we don't do our own research," she said.
First-time voter Anthony Boch of Medford cast his vote for Sanders. "He's the best candidate," he said.
James Rummel of Central Point also voted for Sanders. "We need to have compassion and help each other," he said.
A Klamath Falls ballot box at the Klamath Basin Senior Center was broken into over the weekend and ballots were found in a nearby dumpster, according to a press release from the Klamath County Clerk.
The ballots will still be counted.
Voters concerned about their ballot can call 541-883-5134 to check their ballot's status. A replacement can be issued if it has not been received.