Thirty-six hours after the polls closed on Tuesday night, it’s still not clear who will win in Missouri, either for the Democrats or the Republicans.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump lead their respective party primaries there by less than half a percentage point. Since the margin of victory in each case is less than 1 percentage point, CNN has not projected a winner in either contest.
It could end up being fairly consequential in races that will come down to a delegate count, every vote matters.
Stephanie Fleming, a spokeswoman for the Missouri secretary of state’s office, told CNN late Tuesday that 100% of precincts have reported, but some absentee and provisional ballots remain uncounted. These ballots will be counted in the coming days. Overseas absentee ballots will be accepted until Friday at noon.
The secretary of state’s office could not say how many uncounted ballots remain.
The recount law in Missouri allows a second-place finisher to request a recount if the margin of victory is less than half a percentage point. As the count stands now, both margins of victory are small enough that Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz would be able to request a recount to verify the findings, if they choose to do so.
The Sanders campaign is assessing how the process works and hasn’t made a decision on whether to seek a recount. Campaign manager Jeff Weaver told CNN early Wednesday, “Even if there was a recount and it came out a little bit different, it’s not going to affect the delegates in any kind of significant way.”
The delegate stakes are higher on the Republican side, where 12 statewide at-large delegates will be awarded to whichever candidate emerges the winner. Early Wednesday morning, Cruz’s campaign manager told CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty that at this time the Cruz campaign has “no plans” to request a recount.
The vote count in the Democratic race at this time is:
Clinton: 310,602 votes, 49.6%
Sanders: 309,071 votes, 49.4%
The vote count in the Republican race at this time is:
Trump: 382,093 votes, 40.9%
Cruz: 380,367 votes, 40.7%
John Kasich: 92,533 votes, 9.9%
Marco Rubio: 57,006 votes, 6.1%
As of now, CNN has allocated the following delegates in Missouri:
Democrats:
Clinton: 34
Sanders: 34
Unallocated pending further results: 3
Republicans:
Trump: 25
Cruz: 15
Unallocated pending further results: 12
Kasich and Rubio are not expected to win any delegates in Missouri.
