Trump, Clinton win delegate-rich Georgia on Super Tuesday
Georgia holds 13 percent of the delegates who will be doled out nationwide Super Tuesday.
Here's your final breakdown of the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton wins in Georgia.
The Georgia elections office website show Trump has 501,750 — or 38.81 percent — of the 1,292,690 Republican votes and that Clinton has 542,907 — or 71.33 percent — of the 761,132 Democrat votes.
Of the 4,707,512 registered voters in Georgia, 1,294,659 voted — or 27.5 percent of the state's registered voter base.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz currently has 23.60 percent with 305,135 votes, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 24.24 percent with 315,989 votes, Dr. Ben Carson with 6.23 percent with 80,508 votes and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 5.59 percent with 72,305 votes. Florida's 43rd Governor Jeb Bush, who has dropped out of the race since early voting started has 0.59 percent of the vote, amounting to 7,664 votes.
All other Republican candidates have less than a quarter of a percent, but their totals amount to 9,339 votes. That comes out to 1.86 of Trump's total.
As for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he amassed 214,348 votes, or 28.16 percent of the state's total Democrat votes.
Long-left-in-the-dust, Maryland's 61st Governor Martin O'Malley and former Florida House of Representatives candidates Michael Steinberg together came out with 3,877 votes — or .51 percent of the Democrat vote.
For those left, a fortnight is between them and a possible nomination.
Top Super Tuesday takeaways: Clinton and Trump near the promised land
Super Tuesday: Catch up on what happened
See our interactive web graphic below of the Georgia results from Super Tuesday and read our liveblog below.
10:39 p.m. update:
Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are Georgia's decisive winners.
The Georgia elections office website show Trump has 447,263 — or 39.61 percent — of the 1,129,142 Republican votes and that Clinton has 427,245 — or 71.21 percent — of the 600,012 Democrat votes.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz currently has 23.81 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 23.55 percent, Dr. Ben Carson with 6.36 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 5.35 percent. Florida's 43rd Governor Jeb Bush, who has dropped out of the race since early voting started has 0.60 percent of the vote. All others have less than a quarter of a percent.
Those statistics are with 84.91 percent of the 159 precincts reported — 18 of those partially reported and 135 have fully reported.
8:09 update:
Rabun, Warren, Chattahoochee, Webster and Pulaski counties have fully reported.
And 77 of the 159 counties in Georgia are partially reporting.
Trump now has 46.98 percent of the 99,847 Republican votes and Hillary Clinton has 76.03 percent of the 32,749 votes.
7:32 p.m. update:
In Georgia, 18 out of the state's 159 counties are partially reporting.
The Georgia elections office website show Donald Trump has 5,848 — or 50.95 percent — of the 11,479 Republican votes and that Hillary Clinton has 2,873 — or 77.04 percent — of the 3,729 Democrat votes.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz currently has 19.76 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 18.83 percent, Dr. Ben Carson with 4.6 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 3.54 percent. Florida's 43rd Governor Jeb Bush, who has dropped out of the race has 1.5 percent of the vote. All others have less than 1 percent.
Bernie Sanders has 21.64 percent of the vote.
Those counties are: Gordon, Jasper, McDuffie, Glascock, Baldwin, Crawford, Macon, Lee, Screven, Jeff Davis, Irwin, Cook, Pierce, Brantley, Lumpkin, Johnson, Burke, Terrell and Appling.
7:21 p.m. update:
Despite a loss in Georgia, Jeff Weaver, campaign manager for Bernie Sander, said: "We are going all the way to the convention."
7:14 p.m. update:
CNN and Donald Trump predict that Donald Trump will win Georgia.
7:03 p.m. update:
CNN and The Associated Press call Hillary Clinton the winner in Georgia along with Virginia.
7 p.m. update:
The polls in Georgia are closed.
6:56 p.m. update:
Nearly half of Democratic primary voters in Alabama and Georgia were black, according to early results of exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks. In Texas, about 3 in 10 Democratic primary voters were Hispanic and a little fewer than 2 in 10 were black.
6:47 p.m. update:
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both said that their are concerned about the state of HBCUs, or historically black colleges and universities.
The issue is key to black voters, who decide how Super Tuesday goes for presidential candidates.
According to the USA TODAY, both Dems were grilled by civil rights leaders leading up to the big day for southern black voters as most of the nation's 105 HCBUs are in southern states, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. Many were founded to educate black students when white colleges wouldn't accept them. These days, many struggle financially, with declining enrollment.
Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., a graduate of historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta, slammed Sanders's plan, saying it leaves HBCU students "out in the cold.’’
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders pledge support for HBCUs
6:06 p.m. update:
See the Instagram photo galleries below created by Caroline Glenn of FLORIDA TODAY. In one photo gallery, she shows how people turn their cats into Donald Trump with a few swipes of a brush stemming from an Instagram account and Twitter hashtag #TrumpYourCat.
In the next photo gallery, you can see a compilation of Instagram posts from excited Georgia voters posting their "I"m a Georgia voter" stickers.
5:35 p.m. update:
In eight of nine states where exit polls were conducted Tuesday, Democratic voters were more likely to want a continuation of President Barack Obama's policies than a switch to more liberal policies, according to the Associated Press.
Much of Georgia's appeal to presidential hopefuls hinges on its cache of black voters.
According to early results of the exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, majorities of Democratic voters in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia want a continuation of Obama's policies, along with more than 4 in 10 voters in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Texas.
In each of those states, about a third of Democratic voters or less want a switch to more liberal policies.
In Vermont, about half of Democratic primary voters said they want the next president to change to more liberal policies, of which Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders mostly represents.
However, Savannah's Susan Myers said she never even thought about supporting Sanders.
The 73-year-old real estate agent told the Associated Press she cast her first presidential primary ballot for Clinton back in 2008, when Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination was Barack Obama.
Myers, who voted Tuesday in Savannah's downtown historic district, says Clinton has the intelligence and experience to be president. Plus, she said: "I think we need more women in politics."
5:25 p.m. update:
The forceful removal of about 30 black students from a Donald Trump rally at Valdosta State University was not a racial event, the city's chief of police told the Valdosta Daily Times.
"They were not removed because of signs, because of their belief, or because of race. They were removed because they were loud and disruptive and dropping the F bomb," Chief of Police Brian Childress told the newspaper.
Childress said about 30 people were removed from the gym where Trump was scheduled to speak prior to the candidate's arrival.
"The chief explained his department had set up designated protest zones and even when they were taken out of the complex, the group was told where they could stage protests," the newspaper wrote.
"We work hard to protect First Amendment rights," Childress said. "I resent people trying to make this a racial issue. They were removed simply because they were causing a disturbance. Besides, the Trump detail had rented the facility and had a right to say who could be there."
Black students ejected from Trump rally in Ga.
4:36 p.m. update:
The Associated Press summed up the day of elections so far throughout the 2,682 polling places in Georgia.
Georgia's Republican voters cast by far the most ballots during early voting and joining them on Super Tuesday at a school in Smyrna was Mike Morrow, who wore a shirt depicting former President Ronald Reagan wearing a headband. Morrow voted for GOP front-runner Donald Trump.
"I voted for Trump because I am tired of Washington politics," said Morrow, who carried his infant in a car seat to the polls. "I think he is going to do what he says he is going to do, so I voted for Trump."
In Atlanta, 69-year-old Jon Russell ended up supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest — saying that while he actually prefers Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, he found Clinton better positioned to win the White House in November.
"I have trouble with trust," Russell said, explaining his reservations about Clinton. "But unfortunately the other chap doesn't have the foreign affairs experience."
Recent Georgia polling shows Trump leading the Republican race and Clinton with a double-digit lead on Sanders.
The Democratic race hinges on black voters' support.
Outside her polling place, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Althea Joefield of Atlanta said she wants to see what America would be like with a woman in the White House.
"That's what brought me out of my bed and brought me out here," Joefield said.
Bronwyn Robinson, who voted in Atlanta's liberal Candler Park neighborhood, ended up supporting Sanders.
"I don't think that Bernie can win, but it's really a statement of support for something different looking at our country as a whole," she said.
Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University, said Georgia and other Southern states will test whether Sanders can peel away support from enough young black voters to challenge Clinton's expected strength among African-Americans.
"The African-American vote is what drives election results in these primaries and these are delegate-rich states," she said.
4:16 p.m. update:
There are no statewide voting issues being reported, but there were a counties that had issues, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
In DeKalb County at Briarlake Elementary School just before 8 a.m., precinct officials at one point were down to one functioning computer verifying registered voters. And officials took that one down for a period to reboot the system and affected only a half-dozen voters, the newspaper reported.
3:30 p.m. update:
Voters in at least two Lowndes County precincts had issues casting their ballots, but the Lowndes County Board of Elections says the issues have been fixed, according to Valdosta Today.
Machines used to prepare voting cards malfunctioned at Precinct 1 in Hahira and at Precinct 7 on Madison Highway, Valdosta Today reported. Once aware of the problems, backup systems kicked in and affected voters cast provisional ballots, Deb Cox, supervisor of elections, told the news staff.
2:20 p.m. update:
After his visit in Georgia on Monday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio zipped over to Minnesota on Tuesday trash-talking Jesse Ventura, according to the Associated Press.
"Jesse Ventura was an embarrassment. Let me rephrase that. Jesse Ventura is an embarrassment," he said of the one-term Minnesota governor and professional wrestler.
He nearly lost his voice after visiting Georgia along with Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Arkansas and Oklahoma on Monday alone.
Rubio was planning to fly from Minnesota to his home in Miami on Tuesday to await the results of voting from the 11 states holding primaries.
1:15 p.m. update:
Officials with the Georgia Secretary of State's office said the amount of ballots this year could be historic and shatter the previous record set in 2008, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
The latest early voting numbers show more than 417,000 ballots had been cast heading into Super Tuesday, mostly Republicans.
What do I need to know?
Two groups in Georgia will make the difference Super Tuesday: black voters for Democrats and evangelical Christians for Republicans.
Georgia is huge for presidential hopefuls with 193 delegates up for grabs in the open primary state, meaning voters don't have to claim party affiliation.
Super Tuesday consists of the following states or territories: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wyoming and American Samoa.
In Georgia, polls close at 7 p.m. Visit sos.ga.gov for more information and mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do to find out where to vote.
Stick with Ben Brasch on Twitter (@ben_brasch) and Caroline Glenn (@bycarolineglenn) for the latest from Georgia. And check in with the whole USA TODAY Network for what to know on a day that paves the path to the White House.
For the Dems: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is said to have an advantage over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with black voters, but Sanders might have an edge if young voters hit the polls. In Georgia, 28.66 percent of the 2.59 million people who voted in the 2014 general election were black.
In the vein of young voters, YouTuber Tyler Oakley tweeted earlier today encouraging those of his 5 million Twitter followers who are 18 and older to vote. The star has 8 million YouTube subscribers.
Bonus Republican content from Georgia: Top Trump-isms from Valdosta
Among Republicans, Donald Trump was favored by 36 percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio by 22 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 21 percent, according to an average of statewide polls compiled by Real Clear Politics on Feb. 26. No other GOP candidate had double-digit support.
Trump, the strong front-runner, spoke to a crowd of 10,000 at Valdosta State University the eve of Super Tuesday.
From our USA TODAY network partners at the Tallahassee Democrat, see below what some in Valdosta had to say about Trump.
Stephanie Whittington, 42, of Quitman, Georgia:
She said she hadn’t decided whether to vote for Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz. Whittington works as a service manager for a wealth management firm in Valdosta, Georgia.
“I kind of like Ted Cruz, because of his modest background, the fact that he worked hard to get where he is. He wasn’t handed anything. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon.”
But she may vote for Trump on Tuesday.
“I like that he’s brash – I really do. I think you need someone who can make decisions and stick by them. I think we’ve been an international joke. I think we need someone to be a strong force, to get our military back to where it should be.”
Ron Collins, a 78-year-old retired business owner and member of the City Counsel in Boston, Georgia:
He said he is voting for Donald Trump. He said he likes Trump’s stance on immigration and the economy.
“I like his personality, his positive attitude,” Collins said. “He doesn’t back down. He stands by what he says. He’s not an insider. I just feel that he’s one who can make some changes in Washington.”
Bernard Walker, 23, a senior at Valdosta State University:
He said he is leaning toward voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“You can see him relating to different cultures and all types of different walks of life,” he said. “And he seems like a very grounded, down to earth guy.”
Jeff Hill, 29, a screen printer in Valdosta, Georgia:
Hill said he voted early for Sen. Bernie Sanders. He said Sanders would be a strong voice against racism and address income inequality.
“Bernie Sanders is the first person in a long time who has a voting record that matches what he’s saying,” Hill said. “My issue with a lot of politicians has always been that they flip flop and they don’t stick to their values. He has been saying the same thing for a very long time.”
Dwight Rewis, 54, of Valdosta, Georgia:
Rewis said he voted early for Hillary Clinton because he said she’d continue progress made by the Obama administration.
“I just like her charisma,” he said. “She doesn’t run from a situation. She’s a woman. We need a woman.”