How to watch the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries

Clinton maintains lead, but Sanders WV win expected

Voters in two states -- Nebraska and West Virginia -- are showing up at the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the Democratic or Republican races for president.

West Virginia is holding primaries for both political parties, while Nebraska is only holding a Republican primary election, having held Democratic caucuses on March 5.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are the main candidates on the Democratic ballot. Donald Trump is now the presumptive GOP nominee since his remaining competitors dropped out last week.


  • Watch CBSN at 6 p.m. ET for coverage of the Republican and Democratic primaries


Polls are open in West Virginia from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET and in Nebraska from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. CT (9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET).

West Virginia operates under an open primary system in which any registered voter can cast ballots in either party's primary, regardless of political affiliation, so independents can also participate. Nebraska, however, operates under a closed primary system in which only registered GOP voters can cast ballots.

In the Republican race, 34 delegates are up for grabs in West Virginia, and 36 will be available in Nebraska. Delegates in West Virginia may specify their intention to be committed to a candidate and delegates in Virginia are distributed through a winner-take-all system.

In the Democratic race, 37 delegates will be available in West Virginia and they will be allocated proportionally among candidates that get 15 percent of the vote statewide.

In 2008 and 2012, John McCain and Mitt Romney, respectively, won West Virginia and Nebraska. Clinton won the West Virginia primary in 2008 against then-Sen. Obama.

The math for Sanders isn't looking good: Clinton only needs 17 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination. According to CBS News' latest count, Clinton has 2,227 delegates including superdelegates and Sanders has 1,442. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

On the Republican side, Trump has 1,065 delegates and needs 1,237 delegates to win the nomination.

In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump said he doesn't think the Republican Party has to unite in order to win the general election in November.

Trump is scheduled to meet with Speaker Paul Ryan, other GOP leaders and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus in Washington on Thursday. This comes after Ryan said last week that he wasn't ready yet to express support for Trump.

There are only three more primary days left -- May 17, May 24 and June 7. The remaining states are Kentucky, Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.


What: Democratic and GOP primaries in West Virginia, GOP primary in Nebraska

CBSN election coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET

→ Where: West Virginia, Nebraska

→ When: Polls will be open in WV from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET and in NE from 8:00 a.m. to 8 p.m. CT.


CBS News' Catherine Cannon and Donald Judd contributed to this report.

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