LIVE UPDATES: See the full results of the Florida, Arizona, Ohio, and Illinois primaries
- On March 17, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and Arizona are holding their Democratic presidential primaries.
- Polls in Florida close at 7 p.m. ET, polls in Ohio close at 7:30 p.m. ET, polls in Illinois close at 7 p.m. Central Time and 8 p.m. ET, and polls in Arizona close at 7 p.m. Mountain Time and 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
- We'll have up-to-the-minute, automatically updated live results and vote counts here. Follow along for results.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Four big states are holding presidential primaries today. Follow along for live results.
Live results of the March 17 Democratic primary:
Catch up on live coverage from the primary:
These four states are holding their primaries amid an unprecedented novel coronavirus outbreak, which is throwing a wrench in elections all over the country and making it harder for some people to get to the polls.
Pre-primary:
- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine failed to delay the state's primary - A judge rejects Ohio's request to delay its presidential primary election until June 2 and cancel in-person voting
- Trump says it's 'unnecessary' to postpone primary elections shortly after discouraging gatherings of more than 10 people
- Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are facing calls to choose a woman of color as their vice president
- See the results from every 2020 Democratic presidential primary state so far
What's at stake?
The four huge states holding primaries today collectively allocate 577 pledged delegates to the Democratic national convention, accounting for about 15% of the total delegates allocated throughout the nomination process.
- Florida allocates 219 pledged delegates to the convention. Polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
- Ohio allocates 136 pledged delegates. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
- Illinois allocates 155 pledged delegates. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time and 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
- Arizona allocates 67 pledged delegates. Polls close at 7 p.m. local time and 10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Democrats allocate most of their pledged delegates proportionally by legislative district, in addition to allocating at-large and PLEO (party leader and elected official) delegates based on the statewide vote breakdown.
While delegates are allocated proportionally, in nearly every state the minimum threshold to earn delegates is 15% of the vote. This means candidates must break 15% of the vote at either the congressional district or state level to earn any delegates.
Tuesday's primaries come a week after Biden's blowout victory in the March 10 primaries, in which he won five out of the day's six electoral contests outright and continued to expand his formidable lead over Sanders in national pledged delegates.
Who does the polling say is ahead?
According to FiveThirtyEight's averages of the latest polls, former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders by massive, double-digit margins in every state holding a primary election today, setting the former VP up for another huge delegate haul.
Biden leads Sanders by 41 percentage points on average in Florida, by 28.4 percentage points in Illinois, by 26.4 percentage points in Ohio, and by 23.8 percentage points in Arizona.
According to FiveThirtyEight's primary election forecast, Biden has a 99 in 100 (99%) chance of winning the most delegates in Florida and Illinois and a 49 in 50 chance (98%) of winning the most delegates in Arizona.