10:50pm  Mary Jo Kilroy: "It's now time to rally around Joyce Beatty, Sherrod Brown and President Obama to elect them in November." 10:40pm  Mary Jo Kilroy concedes, losing her 3rd of 4 elections for congress. 10:30pm Barring a major turn of events former Ohio House minority leader Joyce Beatty is a very big step closer to Washington. With 90% of the vote counted, Beatty leads former congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy by about 1,000 votes - 38% to 35%.  The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite against Republican Chris Long, the winner of today's GOP primary. 10:10pm 75% of the vote counted and Joyce Beatty widens lead over Mary Jo Kilroy. Beatty now has 1,100 vote lead over Kilroy. 9:50pm  Half the vote counted in Ohio 3rd Dist Dem Race - Joyce Beatty holds a nearly 700 vote lead over Mary Jo Kilroy. 9:35pm  Joyce Beatty maintains her narrow lead over Mary Jo Kilroy in the race for the Democratic nomination in the third congressional district.  With 36% of the vote counted, Beatty holds a 749 vote lead over Kilroy, 7,811 to 7,062. Priscilla Tyson and Ted Celeste are far behind. 9:10pm   Third District Democrats  17% of the vote counted , Joyce Beatty maintains narrow lead, 5,465 , over Mary Jo Kilroy, 5,075 - a difference of just 390 votes.  Priscilla Tyson is in third with 2,059 and Ted Celeste in 4th with 1,842. 8:55pm  It's very early, but former Ohio House minority leader Joyce Beatty has taken a very narrow lead over former congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy in the race in the Democratic primary for the third congressional district.   With 5% of the vote counted Beatty has 3,830 votes to Kilroy's 3,790. Priscilla Tyson and Ted Celeste trail by wider margins. 8:35pm - Still waiting for Franklin County Board of Elections to release vote totals from today - machine ballots. We've only got absentee ballots so far. 8:00pm - Absentee vote totals from Franklin County give Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy a slight edge over Joyce Beatty with Ted Celeste and Priscilla Tyson trailing. Kilroy collected 3,295 absentee votes to 3,111 for Joyce Beatty - a 184 vote difference.  Celeste had 1,199 and Tyson had 1,184. 7:30pm  Polls officially closed. Absentee vote results coming soon.  Third district congressional candidate Mary Jo Kilroy says she will meet media at 8:30 - just an hour after polls close. It looks like she is confident she'll have good news to comment on. Stay tuned. 7:15pm   (AP) - Early results from an exit poll of Republican primary voters in Ohio find a candidate's ability to defeat President Barack Obama is the most important quality guiding their decisions. The survey also finds nearly two-thirds of voters saying they're committed to backing the eventual Republican nominee, no matter who wins the primary.    About four in ten called a candidate's ability to defeat Obama the most important quality guiding their decisions.      Just about three in 10 voters say this year's campaign was more negative than previous presidential contests. Most said it was about the same and one in seven called it more positive. 7:00pm  Polls Close in Georgia, Vermont, Virginia. Networks project Newt Gingrich will win the primary in his home state of Georgia. Vermont and Virginia too close to call. 6:50pm.    40 minutes until polls close.  Officials in Franklin County and across the state report light turnout - lighter than 2008's primary.  That's not surprising given that 2008 had two contested presidential primaries. But this year seems to have an unusually low turnout for a presidential primary.  Some possible reasons - confusion over congressional and state legislative redistricting, the lack of competitive congressional districts, lack of voter enthusiasm for Republican candidates.  You can't blame the weather. It's was as good a March 6th as you could hope for.
Mike Thompson spends much of his time correcting people who mispronounce the name of his hometown – Worcester, Massachusetts. Mike studied broadcast journalism at Syracuse University when he was not running in circles – as a distance runner on the SU track team.