FRANKLIN
Voters in Western Tidewater headed to the polls on Tuesday to choose which presidential candidates they’d like to see on November’s ballot.

With 595 delegates up for grabs in 12 states — including 49 right here in Virginia — the commonwealth was among the most important states for the Republicans on Super Tuesday.

Heading into the day, Donald Trump was leading the GOP with 82 delegates, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio hold 17 and 16, respectively; 1,237 are needed to capture the nomination.

In the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looked to expand her lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination, 1,032 were available on Tuesday; 95 of which come from the Old Dominion.

Southampton County Registrar Peggy Davis said last week that she didn’t know what to expect in terms of voter turnout.

“We have no way of knowing what the turnout will be, but we have never had big turnouts for primaries,” she said.

Davis, on Tuesday afternoon, added that the registrar’s office won’t know official numbers at Southampton County’s until after this paper’s deadline.

Isle of Wight Registrar Lisa Betterton was anticipating a decent turnout when asked last week, but said that only 4,863 people had voted as of 4 p.m.

Results from Super Tuesday will be in the Friday, March 4, edition of The Tidewater News.