OPRAH ASSISTS IN SUPER TUESDAY SNAFU

Super Tuesday arrived this week with many voters unable to take part due to deadly tornados in the south, snow in Illinois, a lack of ballots in California and "Invisible Ink" confusion in Chicago.


Also in Chicago, at least one woman who arrived early to vote was told by her precinct that she wouldn't be able to because only one of five election judges was present. Rachel Waymire was about to head home when she was stopped by Oprah Winfrey, who happened to be at the precinct next door, reports ABC News.


The talk show host and Barack Obama supporter told Waymire she would stay with her until she was allowed to cast her ballot.

"She just kind of stood there and then as soon as I got to vote she left and she said, 'I'll call you later to make sure that you voted.' And probably about an hour later I was sitting at my desk and she called my cell phone," Waymire told Chicago's talk station WLS, adding that she voted for Obama.

Chicago's other voting mishap involved 20 voters on the city's North Side who were convinced by a precinct worker that a stylus for marking electronic touch screens was actually a pen with "invisible ink" to be used for marking paper ballots. The ballots were rejected by the machine and election officials had to scramble to find the voters who cast bad ballots, eventually getting 10 of them to vote with real ink.

Meanwhile, on the city's West Side, police were called to a polling place after a fight broke out between two female election judges, leaving one injured and one in police custody.

More Super Tuesday voting issues are listed below, courtesy of ABC News:

• New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton, had to wait for almost an hour to vote because voting machines didn't work at his polling place, the Hoboken Fire Department Engine Company No. 2. About a dozen voters were turned away and it was unclear what caused the problem.

• Because another polling site in Jersey City opened almost an hour late this morning, a lawyer for Obama's campaign was in Hudson County Superior Court arguing that the site should be kept open until 8:50 p.m. that night, the Jersey Journal reported, but was turned down by a judge.

• In Arizona, there were scattered reports of irregularities that included registered voters' names missing from registration lists, identification problems and changes in polling locations that confused voters who were not provided an opportunity to vote by provisional ballot.

• After more than six polling sites in New Mexico ran out of ballots due to heavy voter turnout, new ballots had to be frantically printed and sent via couriers to those locations, according to the state's Democratic Party.

• Five precincts in California's Santa Clara County and about a dozen precincts in Alameda County also ran out of ballots, reportedly due to large numbers of independent voters requesting Democratic ballots. The Santa Clara County registrar was urging voters to bring sample ballots or wait in line to use the few electronic voting machines meant to serve the disabled and affected precincts in Alameda County were kept open until 9:00 p.m.

• There were problems with voting machines including temporary glitches in St. Louis and Chicago and two-hour waits at some polling stations in Fulton County, Ga. In Los Angeles, voting machines weren't delivered to several polling locations. Even in Beverly Hills, Calif., there were glitches and a shortage of poll workers forced some voters to cast provisional ballots. "

• In Wisconsin, Texas and Virginia, some clueless voters showed up at polling locations even though primaries weren't taking place in those states on Tuesday.

TOM JOYNER SHOW UNCOVERS SUPER TUESDAY IRREGULARITIES

Dallas, TX -- Tuesday, the Tom Joyner Morning Show monitored calls live on-air from the 1-866-MYVOTE1 voter empowerment hotline, which received over 1,000 calls from citizens reporting voter irregularities during today's Super Tuesday primaries.

The hotline has received over 20,000 calls total since the effort was launched last month. The hotline is a partnership between The Tom Joyner Morning Show and the NAACP.

In the first several hours of voting over 1,000 incidents of voter infractions were called into the national hotline by voters at the polls.

Throughout the morning Tom and the crew urged voters to stay in line and to report any problems they are encountering to the MYVOTE1 hotline number throughout the day. Meanwhile, the NAACP mobilized efforts locally to try to resolve voter issues in troubled areas.

Additionally, during the broadcast both Democratic candidates Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton called in to the show to speak to voters. The show also featured special local reports from noted news anchors, Monica Pearson in Atlanta, Art Norman in Chicago and Sherri Jackson in Birmingham.

"I am proud of the work our show did today," says Tom Joyner, whose show is aired in more than 115 markets reaching over eight million listeners. "We are determined to make sure that every listener has a chance to vote this election season and make their voice heard."

The majority of calls centered on long lines and delays in voting due to insufficient voting machines and problems associated with the enforcement of Georgia's new controversial voter ID law.

Widespread problems in Georgia were the main topic of the show with most of the issues being concentrated in the 13th congressional district of the state that included parts of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton and Henry Counties.

According to Greg Moore, executive director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, the problems faced in Georgia by thousands of voters this morning were tied directly to the larger than expected influx of voters during the primary, and the failure of many county election officials to plan for the large influx of new voters.

Tom and the crew urged voters throughout the day to stay in line and to report any problems they were encountering to the MYVOTE1 hotline number throughout the day. The NAACP mobilized efforts locally to resolve voter issues in troubled areas.

Other minor delays due to machine problems and long lines were reported in Illinois, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri. For more up to date information contact www.BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Today's broadcast of the The Tom Joyner Morning Show will continue with coverage of the Election 08 primaries and will include more voter feedback from Super Tuesday.

About the Tom Joyner Morning Show
The nation's # 1 syndicated urban morning show, which airs in over 115 markets reaching nearly 8 million listeners, has distinguished itself over the years as continuously giving back to its audience with quality programming, highly popular promotions, special events and philanthropy. Since 2004, Joyner has awarded millions to nearly 2,000 contest winners and his Foundation has raised more than $55 million to help keep students in historically black colleges and universities. The Morning Show with co-hosts Sybil Wilkes and J. Anthony Brown also features news analysis with Jacque Reid, celebrity news with Jawn Murray, political commentary by Tavis Smiley and comedic observations by Huggy Lowdown the Celebrity Snitch. Joyner's website, BlackAmericaWeb.com, has more than 1.5 million registered users and features news with special reports by award winning journalists and exclusive political coverage as well as interactive elements with on demand audio.

NO CLEAR WINNER AFTER SUPER TUESDAY FOR DEMS

In the Super Tuesday battle for delegates for the Democratic nomination for president, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a split decision, most experts and pundits agree.

All yesterday did was set the stage for more of what has become an intense struggle to be number one when the Democratic National Convention happens this Summer in Denver from August 25-28.


On the other hand, on the Republican side, Arizona Senator John McCain inched closer to securing the presidential nomination on Tuesday night, but was hampered in his hopes of emerging as the de facto nominee by a strong showing by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.


Illinois Senator Barack Obama defeated New York Senator Hillary Clinton by sizable margins in Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Connecticut and Illinois, his home state, while Clinton won easily in New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Arkansas.


Somewhat surprisingly, the former first lady was also victorious in Massachusetts -- overcoming the endorsements for Obama from Ted Kennedy and John Kerry, the state's two U.S. senators.


But Obama, vying to become the first black president in American history, won a substantial share of delegates in states where Clinton had once held huge leads in public opinion polls.


"It's not over yet," Clinton, who would become the country's first female president, told supporters Tuesday night in New York. "Tonight, in record numbers, you voted not just to make history, but to remake America," Clinton said. (Scroll down for video of her speech to supporters.)


Meanwhile in Chicago, a spirited Obama once again reiterated that his campaign is in it to win it as well.


"We have to choose between change and more of the same. We have to choose between looking backward and looking forward. We have to choose between our future and our past." (Scroll down for video report of his Super Tuesday campaign and comments to his supporters.)


As things stand now, Clinton is leading the delegate count with 845 to Obama's 765. The uncommitted tally is 75.


On the Republican side, McCain has 623; Romney 269 and Huckabee trails with 190.


The early results showed some stunning advances for Obama in the deep South. The Illinois senator won about 60 per cent of the vote in Georgia, which has a significant African-American population.


More surprising, however, was that Obama won more than 43 per cent of white voters in the heart of Dixie. It was almost double the number of white votes he won in South Carolina's primary on Jan. 26.


The big gains among white voters suggest Obama's candidacy is increasingly crossing racial lines.


For Clinton, Tuesday showed her strength among Latinos, a bloc she dominated in California. But exit polls showed Obama narrowing the gap in Arizona, where he won about 4 in 10 Latinos, and his victory in the Colorado caucuses suggests he mounted a successful courtship of Latinos in key areas of that state as well.


On the Republican side, McCain scored crucial primary victories in delegate-rich states across the U.S. Northeast.


However, Huckabee showed unexpected strength in conservative states across the South and Midwest.


With the Democratic race still very much in doubt, Obama and Clinton began positioning themselves for the next set of primaries even before the polls closed Tuesday.


On Feb. 9, Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state hold nominating contests. Then it's the so-called Potomac primary on Feb. 12, when voters in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., cast ballots.


In a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Clinton strategists conceded Obama is likely "favoured" in the remaining primaries to be held in February.


But Clinton aides said they believed the New York senator has a realistic chance of winning the March 4 voting in Texas and Ohio, the nation's second and seventh most populous states.


Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, predicted the Democratic race will likely remain competitive at least until April 22, when Pennsylvania holds its primaries.