Georgia offers the most delegates available in the Super Tuesday voting, though its likeliest role in the biggest cluster of elections so far in the Republican campaign is not as an arbiter between Mitt Romney and top challenger Rick Santorum. Instead, it is where Newt Gingrich, leading in statewide polls, will either launch another comeback or face a decision about whether to carry on. Here’s a look at the other states that will be voting Tuesday.
ALASKA
• Election type: caucuses
• Meeting time: varies by time zone. In the Aleutian Islands, the caucusrd conclude at 8 p.m. local time — 1 a.m. Wednesday ET.
• Delegates at stake: 24
• 2008 winner: Romney
• 2012 forecast: The last pre-election poll in Alaska was conducted in 2010, and it showed only one thing clearly: Former Gov. Sarah Palin would not have been able to count on her state had she decided to run for president, with just 17 percent support.
GEORGIA
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: 8 p.m.
• 2008 winner: Mike Huckabee
• 2012 forecast: A Georgia win is Newt Gingrich’s best chance of keeping alive his campaign, which has faded since his win in the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary. He represented Georgia in Congress for two decades, part of that time as U.S. House speaker, but he’s been a Virginia resident since he left office in 1999. Still, he held the lead in recent Georgia polls.
IDAHO
• Election type: caucuses
• Meeting time: 9 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 32
• 2008 winner: Idaho held a primary in 2008. The winner was John McCain.
• 2012 forecast: There has been no polling. Ron Paul ‘s strength is in caucuses, and he won the Idaho GOP straw poll. But Michele Bachmann did the same in Iowa, where she later finished in sixth place in the caucuses.
MASSACHUSETTS
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: 8 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 38
• 2008 winner: Romney
• 2012 forecast: Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is the presumptive favorite in a race expected to draw little turnout. Voters are far more focused on the neck-and-neck race this fall between Republican Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.
NORTH DAKOTA
• Election type: caucus
• Meeting time: varies. Results must be reported to the state Republican Party by 10 p.m. ET.
• Delegates at stake: 28
• 2008 winner: Romney
• 2012 forecast: No polling available. Romney has the endorsement of U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, a popular former governor. Ron Paul has the endorsement of the state’s Right to Life director, Paul Maloney.
OHIO
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: 7:30 p.m. ET
• Delegates: 63
• 2008 winner: McCain
• 2012 forecast: No contest Tuesday counts more than this one, and Rick Santorum’s polling lead over Romney was narrowing late last week. He scored a coup when state Attorney General Mike DeWine, previously a Romney supporter, endorsed him. The winner will have a strong argument to be the nominee in November, when Ohio will be a potentially decisive swing state.
OKLAHOMA
• Election type: primary
• Poll close: 8 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 40
• 2008 winner: McCain
• 2012 forecast: Evangelicals are a powerful voting bloc in Oklahoma, and a February poll showed Santorum, whose base of support is evangelicals and conservative Catholics, leading Romney 39 percent to 23 percent. Oklahoma appears to be his to lose.
TENNESSEE
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: Varies by time zone — polls in western Tennessee close at 9 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 55
• 2008 winner: Mike Huckabee
• 2012 forecast: A poll last week showed Santorum had a better than 2-to-1 lead over Romney among likely Republican voters.
VERMONT
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: 7 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 17
• 2008 winner: McCain
• 2012 forecast: Vermont has a long history of suppoting moderates. A poll last week showed Romney ahead among his fellow New Englanders, with 34 percent to Santorum’s 27 percent.
VIRGINIA
• Election type: primary
• Polls close: 7 p.m. ET
• Delegates at stake: 46
• 2008 winner: McCain beat Huckabee narrowly.
• 2012 forecast: The third most populous state to vote on Super Tuesday, and a swing-state prize in November, Virginia should be second only to Ohio in attention. But its primary has a huge asterisk: Because of tough requirements, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are on the ballot. Newt Gingrich, though he lives in Virginia, didn’t qualify.
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