As Voters Hit the Polls, Candidates Make Last-Minute Appeals

Hoping to survive Super Tuesday but trailing in national polls were Huckabee, 52, and Paul, 72. Turnout was reported heavy in a number of states, including several hit by bad weather. In Tennessee, steady streams of voters went to the polls despite pouring rain across the state. In Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, voters defied rough weather ranging from thunderstorms to tornado watches. In Colorado, party officials forecast record turnout although the Denver area received up to nine inches of snow last night and eastern parts of the state were getting even more.

Unusually heavy voting was also reported in Massachusetts and Georgia, two of the 19 states holding simultaneous Democratic and Republican primaries or caucuses. Three others have solely Democratic contests, while two have Republican-only events.

In Tennessee, pollsters expected Clinton and McCain to win their respective primaries, although state GOP Chairwoman Robin Smith expressed concern about a McCain nomination.

In New York, where high turnout was reported statewide, there were isolated accounts of voting machine malfunctions in Brooklyn, an important battleground for Obama and Clinton.

"There's heavy turnout everywhere," said Jonathan Rosen, New York Democratic Party spokesman. "There's tons of street activity in every major city, and no real problems. . . . Of course, when you're running an election statewide with millions of people using lever machines, there's going to be scattered problems, but nothing is out of the ordinary."

In California, a record 8.9 million voters were estimated to be participating in today's primaries. Among the early voters were the state's political odd couple -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who has endorsed McCain, and first lady Maria Shriver (D), a niece of former president John F. Kennedy and a declared supporter of Obama.

At stake in today's contests for the Democrats were 1,681 pledged delegates to the party's national convention in Denver in late August -- more than half the total of those delegates nationwide. According to the Democratic National Committee, 2,025 delegate votes are needed to win the nomination at its convention. Of 4,049 total delegate votes to be cast, 3,253 will come from the "pledged delegates" that are awarded on a proportional basis to presidential candidates in the primaries and caucuses.

In addition to contests in 22 states, Democrats in the U.S. territory of American Samoa voted today in a territorial caucus, and American expatriates belonging to Democrats Abroad began a week of balloting.

For Republicans, 1,023 pledged delegates in 21 states were up for grabs, with a total of 1,191 delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party's convention in Minneapolis in September.

The Super Tuesday contests loomed as potentially more decisive for the GOP than for the Democrats, with Republican primaries and caucuses in nine states offering a winner-take-all format to the top finisher. Democratic Party rules bar winner-take-all contests, making it unlikely that either candidate could score a knockout today.

Heading into today's contests, Clinton was leading Obama 261 to 196 in total pledged and unpledged delegates, according to a tally by the Associated Press. McCain had 102 delegates, Romney had 93 and Huckabee 43, the AP reported.

In an interview on the CBS "Early Show" this morning, Obama said Clinton "has to be the prohibitive favorite going in, given her name recognition, but we've been steadily chipping away. . . ."