Employee: Court clerk let workers off with pay to campaign for Tramel

Catherine Quist, Knox County Circuit, Civil Sessions and Juvenile Court clerk, gave at least one employee most of today off with pay so she could campaign at the polls for 4th District Commission hopeful Lee Tramel, a worker in the office said.

8:00 ET... Oklahoma (MSNBC)
8:15 ET... Tennessee (MSNBC)
8:30 ET... Arkansas (MSNBC)
9:00 ET... New York, Massachusetts - so much for the Kennedy endorsement (MSNBC)
9:20 ET... New Jersey - despite the insurgent campaign for Rikki Hall (MSNBC)

Delegate count as of 9 ET: Clinton 447 (CBS)

Taking cover around 10:30... see you on the other side of this supercell.

Crunching a few of the state numbers... Obama won 9 counties of Tennessee's 95 (Davidson, Fayette, Hamilton, Hardeman, Haywood, Madison, Shelby, Van Buren, Williamson).

Some might assert that Obama would have done better if the storms hadn't hit West Tennessee so hard. Well, one: that storm sent Clinton voters home as well. Two: this ignores the fact that Clinton took victories in 66% of the counties in the state. Total of 631,680 votes cast statewide.

Hillary's average margin of victory was something like 50 points (yes, five-zero, you read that right) in counties over west *and* middle *and* east Tennessee - granted, these counties don't have as much population as the ones that Obama carried, but still, they add up. This is the rural/urban divide showing up again, and depending on the demographics of the state involved, this can really cut against your candidate. (The exit polls may highlight some of this. In general, Tennessee's population skews caucasian - certainly more so relative to neighboring states Georgia and Alabama, which Obama carried; certainly more so in rural areas of the state, which Clinton overwhelmingly carried.)

Notable: Montgomery County - home of Fort Campbell - went to Clinton. That may not amount to a referendum on the Iraq issue, but it is certainly interesting. This county also went for HFJ in the general in TN-Senate '06.

7:30 ET... Georgia (MSNBC)
8:00 ET....Illinois (MSNBC)
9:05 ET... Delaware (MSNBC)
9:25 ET... Alabama (MSNBC)

Sometime between 10 and 11 while the supercell rolled through... North Dakota, Minnesota, Connecticut, Kansas

Delegate count as of 9 ET: Obama 392 (CBS)

9:35 UPDATE: Precincts are rolling in. EV numbers appear to be holding in most races. See individual races for latest updates and what they include. Will update key races for a while and note any significant changes. Big losers: Cate, Tramel, Moore. And Owings. Sometimes the voters actually pay attention.

11:00 UPDATE: Later, y'all. Read more for the details....

02/06 UPDATE: Full results with all precincts reporting at the Knox County Election Commission.

Howard Dean discusses the matchup with Chris Matthews on Hardball

For a little humor while we wait. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has gathered pictures of off-beat voting places.

Check it out.

Blog-style local media dispatches:

Knoxville News Sentinel

WBIR Channel 10 News

A few reports of machine problems, mixed reports on turnout...

An election day early afternoon report from Blount County over at BlountViews...

GO VOTE. GO VOTE. GO VOTE.

That is all...

When I showed up at my precinct about 11:15 this morning -- Lincoln Park School -- I was the 60th person to vote. I was told that was more than voted in the entire day at that location on one of the more recent primaries, but there was some debate if it was the city election last year of the 2006 primary. I know that for the 2006 general election I was in line for about 90 minutes. At any rate, there wasn't a line when I was there, but I purposely went at one of the traditionally low times of the day.

Pam

It's Fat Tuesday! Let's party!

In memory of Hurricane Katrina, best wishes to all those still in recovery mode on the Gulf Coast.

Hillary Clinton responds to questions about her husband on MSNBC this morning. (Last one, I promise.)

Hillary Clinton discusses health care on CNN this morning

If the almost unanimous silence of people not paid to be Republicans hasn't made it clear, the party of torture, disaster and failure seems to be having a crisis of confidence. What do Republicans believe? Mike Huckabee says, "We believe in some things, we stand by those things, we live or die by those things."

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.