I can't believe it. We are down to our FINAL primary election open thread. Whew!

As this Market Watch story pointed out, Montana and South Dakota are holding the last primaries in the contest with 31 pledged delegates at stake. Because neither candidate will have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination, there are 201.5 super delegates that have yet to cast their votes.

The polls in South Dakota close at 7 p.m. Mountain and Central time. (The state has two time zones.) Montana's polls close at 8 p.m. Mountain time. Last night, one of the cable news networks reported that Sen. Clinton would give a speech from New York at 6 p.m. ET. Sen. Obama will speak later in the evening from Minnesota. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Also, in case you missed it, Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. I am crestfallen. -Elisa

The polls close in Kentucky at 6 p.m. local time -- or 7 p.m. eastern time. Oregon, whose votes are mail-in ballots, is expected to reveal results at 8 p.m. local time, or 11 p.m. ET. Enjoy!

Due to some demand, here is a thread dedicated to the West Virginia primary. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. local time. Political enthusiasts everywhere, rejoice!

I am feeling a little election-fatigued, but it is an exciting race in that moms here and everywhere have a say in the nominating process. Indiana and North Carolina moms: Please give us updates!

The polls in North Carolina close at 7:30 p.m. EDT and at 6 p.m. local time in Indiana, according to my quick and dirty google search.

Even Sen. Obama doesn't expect to win today. This Obama mama will drink lots of wine in despair.

Maryland, Virginia and D.C. hold their primaries today. The polls in Virginia close at 7 p.m. local time. Voters in Maryland and D.C. have until 8 p.m. to cast their ballots.

Just curious: Are any of you still undecided? What a bizarre, but exciting primary, eh? This is the first primary in my (short) lifetime that every single vote will count. And I agree with what's been said about voter turnout. The fact so many new voters are in the mix makes me more confident about November.

Have fun watching -- and participating!

UPDATE: As mentioned in this thread below, there were record turnouts for the Democrats in the caucus states. Just to give you an idea, at one point last night, a CNN reporter said there were 1,200 people at a caucus precinct. More than half had never caucused before! Truly amazing.

The delegate count, including pledged "super delegates," on the Democratic contest is so close, according to CNN. There has not been an election like this in a long time: 1,100 for Clinton compared to 1,039 for Barack Obama. None of the candidates are even halfway to the nomination! As for the Republicans, John McCain almost has the nomination with 714 delegates compared to Mike Huckabee who has only 217 delegates, but has remained in the race. -Elisa

There are caucuses or primaries in Guam (Republican), Kansas (Republican), Louisiana, Nebraska (Democratic), Virgin Islands (Democratic) and Washington (Democratic). Maine's Democratic caucuses are tomorrow.

Have fun watching!

The 24 states with delegates up for grabs:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia.

Also, America Samoa will cast its votes and the Democrats Abroad Global Primary will begin today, according to that objective news source, Wikipedia.

Have fun watching the returns! It’s going to be a late night for us.

Between Ari’s holiday concert last night and more school stuff this morning, I missed the debate in Iowa between the Democratic presidential candidates.

The debate, sponsored by the Des Moines Register, focused a lot on fiscal matters, according to the Associated Press. I was glad to read that the candidates were on the same page in regards to making rich individuals and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. But only Richardson mentioned balancing the budget, a worthy goal completely abandoned by the Right.

The opening moments of the event underscored the gulf between the two parties on economic issues. Republicans called repeatedly on Wednesday for elimination of the estate tax — which falls principally on the largest of estates — and reduction in the corporation income tax.

Those differences will have to wait for the general election campaign, however. For now, all presidential hopefuls in both parties are pointing with single-minded determination on their nomination campaigns, beginning with the Iowa caucuses on Jan 3 and the New Hampshire primary five days later.

Only New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said balancing the budget would be a high priority. He noted that as governor, he is required to do so, and he called for a presidential line-item veto, a constitutional amendment to balance the budget, the elimination of “corporate welfare” and elimination of congressional earmarks to help get rid of federal red ink.

I like Richardson and am disappointed he has not placed higher than fourth place in the polls. Still, I was glad to see that all our candidates blamed the Bush tax cuts for draining our treasury and giving away cash to people who don’t need it.

But I am irked that the Des Moines Register excluded Rep. Dennis Kucinich for not having a campaign office in Iowa, yet allowed Alan Keyes to participate in the Republican debate. I agree that active campaigning in Iowa should be a basic tenet to participate in the Iowa debate, but what's up with the double standard?

Did any of you catch the debate? What did you think? Who are you early state voters supporting?