Live Blog: The Northeast brings it home!

Good Evening!

These are the states that are voting today in the 2016 Presidential Primaries!  Here are the number of Democratic Delegates up for grabs as well as the expected poll closing times.

Maryland · 95 delegates
Delaware · 21 delegates
Connecticut · 55 delegates
Pennsylvania · 189 delegate
Rhode Island · 24 delegates

Last poll closes at 8:00 PM ET for all 5 states

Here’s some of the things to consider when watching the returns. The first most important thing is will the front runners close the deal?  Polls show both Clinton and Trump ahead in these states.

A sense of inevitability is growing around both the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns, and they could easily build on that momentum this Tuesday. Democratic and Republican voters will cast their primary ballots in five states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — where the respective front-runners hold solid leads.

In delegate-rich Pennsylvania, Trump has a 13-point lead over his closest competitor Ted Cruz, while Clinton has a seven-point lead over Bernie Sanders, according to a CBS News Battleground Tracker survey released Sunday. All told, there are 556 delegates at stake –172 for Republicans and 384 for Democrats.

Will the leaders sweep the five states?    Politico has listed some of the key counties for each of the candidates.  Of course, we’re interested in Pennsylvania with its huge swath of delegates.  The state’s urban areas will influence the overall vote which means that Hillary’s minority support is crucial.

Pennsylvania

Allegheny County: Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh and the immediate suburbs, holds more GOP voters than any other county in the state.

Pennsylvania’s “loophole primary” makes the focus on specific districts for Republicans trickier, but Allegheny is still a key battleground. Kasich was born and raised in the county, in McKees Rocks. Trump visited Pittsburgh earlier this month.

The county includes all or part of three different congressional districts: the 12th, 14th and 18th.

On the Democratic side, Allegheny is battleground territory: Clinton won it by almost nine points in 2008. A similar performance there on Tuesday could close the door on Sanders’ underdog bid at a statewide victory.

Lackawanna County: This is Clinton territory: She won Lackawanna by a yawning margin in 2008, 74 percent to 26 percent.

Clinton claims Scranton roots that served her well eight years ago. And it’s no surprise one of her closing events in the state was in Dunmore, just outside Scranton, last Friday. (Her husband held an event earlier this month at Scranton High School.)

These are mostly white voters who stuck with Clinton eight years ago. The question is whether they will still serve as a firewall for her on Tuesday, or jump to Sanders, as a number of white Democrats have in other states.

Philadelphia: Clinton managed to win statewide eight years ago despite losing Philadelphia by nearly a two-to-one margin, 65 percent to 35 percent.

This time around, the African-American base in Philadelphia should be strong for Clinton. But the city is also a big college town, and enhanced youth turnout could help Sanders.

Clinton has the backing of former Mayor Michael Nutter — who backed her over Obama in 2008 — and also from longtime supporter Ed Rendell, another former Philadelphia mayor and former two-term governor, who will be under pressure to reinstate his turnout machine to help the former secretary of state.

Here’s the ratfucking meme of the day–likely pushed by BernieBr0s–that simply isn’t true.

Here’s a contender for weird/fake endorsement of the day: A Grand Dragon of the California branch of the KKK allegedly told Vocativ, an organization “at the nexus of media and technology,” that it is endorsing Hillary Clinton. “She is friends with the Klan,” said Will Quigg, citing as evidence her friendship with Bobby Byrd, the long-time United States senator from West Virginia who was in the KKK as a young man. Quigg also claimed the organization had raised $20,000 in anonymous donations for the Clinton campaign.

This is fairly obviously B.S. The Clinton campaign denies it has received nearly that much money in anonymous funds, and the Vocativ reporter even noted that he factchecked and verified the campaign’s claim using F.E.C. filings. But hey! A Klansman said the name “Hillary Clinton” with a gleeful smile on his face, so take that for what it’s worth, which is probably roughly nothing.

Some how, I can’t see the Klan supporting the candidate that has the overwhelming support of black voters, can you?

Grab your popcorn and let’s watch Hillary win some more on her way to the White House!!!