Delaware voters headed to the polls in larger numbers than typical on Tuesday, according to election watchers. The First State is one of five with a primary on Tuesday, and in recent presidential election years, each party's nominee has been clearly decided by the time Delaware's comes around in late April.
But not this year. Both the Democratic and Republican races for the nomination are still in question, which means Delaware's 31 and 16 party delegates, respectively, are coveted. That's reflected in the fact that the state was visited by Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the several days leading up to the primary.
Here's what is happening on the ground in Delaware:
10:25 p.m.
Billionaire Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took early leads in Delaware and never looked back, winning the state and taking the majority of its pledged 37 delegates.
With all of the state's 313 districts reporting, Trump dominated the GOP field, winning by a 3-to-1 margin with 63 percent of the votes over Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Clinton led by 21 points over Sen. Bernie Sanders, 60 percent to 39 percent. The outstanding district, in eastern Kent County, was experiencing an issue with its ballot machine, delaying those results.
Turnout statewide was higher for registered Republicans at 38 percent, than Democrats at 30 percent.
8:50 p.m
State Department of Elections results show the gaps are growing between the winners and all other comers. With three-fourths of the state's 313 districts reporting, Trump has a 3-to-1 margin lead over Ohio Gov. John Kasich, 60 percent to 20 percent. Sen. Ted Cruz is running a distant third with 16 percent of the vote.
Clinton continued to maintain a comfortable margin over Sanders, winning 60 percent of the vote to over the Vermont senator's 39 percent.
The state is following past voting trends, with the more populous areas in the north going heavily Democratic and the more rural south voting Republican.
Trump earned more than double Clinton's in the state's southernmost county, Sussex, while Clinton topped Trump by the same margin in New Castle County, home of Wilmington, the state's largest city.
8:41 p.m.
The Associated Press has declared Donald Trump the winner of Delaware's Republican primary. With 66 of 313 districts reporting by this time, about 1 percent of the total, Trump has a commanding lead -- 72 percent of the votes -- over the other five GOP candidates on the ballot. The next closest content is John Kasich with 16 percent of the vote.
On the Democratic side, AP has called the primary for Hillary Clinton. It's a closer race, but not by much. Clinton leads Bernie Sanders 59 percent to 40 percent.
6:25 p.m.
The turnout to some polls in New Castle County was lower than expected Tuesday during the work-day, but election administrators expected a flood of voters to arrive in the evening.
"It was not at what I would think would be good for this time of day," Katie Claude, election inspector at the polling station at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School, said at 2 p.m. "I expect them to come rushing in here at the end of the day."
It was a similar story at a polling station in Wilmington's West Center City. At 3:30 p.m.,145 voters had cast ballots, out of the roughly 1,000 expected voters in the precinct, said Sharon Gordy, the polling station election inspector.
Nearly 17 percent of eligible voters have cast ballots in Republican primaries in states where those contests have already occurred -- the highest mark since the 1980s, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Democratic turnout has reached nearly 14 percent, also historically high but not at the level of the 2008 primary, which pitted former-Senator Hillary Clinton against President Barack Obama.
Reed Millar, Sanders' Delaware campaign manager, said his team will check in with the First State's various election precincts throughout the day and focus their phone calling efforts on the ones with the lowest turnout.
"It's sort of early in the day, so it's hard to tell," Millar said at 2 p.m. "probably this evening will be the most intense push, as we look for wherever the turnout is the lowest and try to put the most calls and doors into those areas."
Volunteers for Ohio Gov. Tom Kasich are calling voters on the Republican side, and encouraging them to travel to the polls and cast ballots for a candidate who "can win in the general election," said Adam Lester, a paid member of Kasich's campaign team in Delaware.
"Out of the voters that we're calling, you know republican primary voting people, they consistently say, you're the only one reaching out to us," he said. "A lot of undecided voters are all swinging our way because we're the only ones talking to them."
5:15 p.m.
At Delaware Technical and Community College’s Carter Partnership Building in Georgetown, an old pickup truck drove past with Virginia tags and a bumper sticker that read “Feel the Bern.”
Driver Kurt Schlegel, of Charlottesville, Va., got out and planted a Bernie Sanders yard sign in the grass along a walkway to the polling place.
This is his sixth state since starting as a Sanders campaign volunteer for the Iowa caucuses.
He said he was on his way to Seaford and didn’t see a sign out at the college.
“Delaware’s kind of gone under the radar," he said.
Schlegel said he came to the state because “once you’ve made an investment in this campaign . . . he needs us to cover that.”
Schlegel said he has a little brother who spent a year in Iraq and he worries about how this country will pay off its war debt.
“I looked at Elizabeth Warren, too,” he said. But back in Charlottesville, he heard that Sanders was coming to speak. So he got to the venue 2 hours early and it was already full. He then realized that Sanders’ message resonated with voters.
4 p.m.
"May Donlad Trump win," said 51-year-old Wanada Bowers as she spoke to her daughter outside the polling center.
Bower said she supports Trump because of the way he runs his businesses and the way he conducts himself. She's also not happy with the nation's path and wants something better.
Matt Fox, who voted for Barack Obama in 2009, then switched parties to vote for Mitt Romney four years later, said he stuck with the GOP this time in order to vote for Trump.
"I seen Donald Trump at the rally the other day and it was a pretty cool experience, especially for little small Harrington," said the 26-year-old wearing his Trump baseball cap. "I always kind of liked him from the beginning so I just came out and vote."
While many millennials have been pulling for Sen. Bernie Sander, Fox said he believes Trump's common core beliefs are the same as those of ordinary people. He added that's been catching grief from friends for supporting Trump, who they label as racist. But Fox said he believes Trump's stands have to do more with national security.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders in Sussex County were spending the day in get out the vote efforts.
1:15 p.m
Voters in Delaware took to social media to express their pride in voting on Tuesday, and to throw in a push for their candidate of choice.
Still no word yet from the state Department of Delaware Elections on turnout, but at the Highlands Elementary School in Wilmington about 300 people had cast a ballot just after 1 p.m., said Paul Smith, the inspector at the polling location.
“We had about 10 or 12 people waiting outside when we opened this morning,” said Smith. “It was steady for a couple hours but it has slowed down.”
Smith said he would expect the polls to get busy again this afternoon and into the evening.
“After work I think more people will stop in,” said Smith.
Majority Judge Paul Mahoney said the turnout seems a bit busier than previous years. Mahoney has worked at different polling places throughout the Highlands neighborhood for 35 years.
“With all the publicity for the different candidates I think that has brought people out,” said Mahoney.
It's clear that the media is falling short on its exit polling, however, according to one voter.
And in Sussex County, the party chair of the Democrats was fielding phone calls that clearly showed residents still were not exactly sure what they were doing at the polls on Tuesday.
"Now it matters, which is kind of fun," said Georgia Wampler, 68, of Newark, who walked to the local library to vote early on Tuesday morning.
Lauren Vella, 25, of Newark went to the Clinton rally on Monday and cast her ballot for her on Tuesday. "Normally no one really comes here," Vella said, and it feels good to get some attention.
John Fluharty, former executive director of the Delaware Republican Committee and a party analyst, said he expects Trump to take the state.
"I expect that along the lines of polling numbers we saw last week, Trump is going to be over 50 [percent]," he said.
Things are a little tighter on the Democratic side, with polls last week putting front-runner Hillary Clinton ahead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 7 points.
Reporters Jenna Pizzi, Esteban Parra and Saranec Spencer contributed to this report.
