Pennsylvania's Results Won't Really Be Known

There are lots of delegates up for grabs on Tuesday, and many of those will be coming from Pennsylvania. The Keystone state will be holding its primaries on the same day as Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Delaware. There will be plenty to keep track of as results pour in from the five states. What time will Pennsylvania's primary results be out?

Fortunately for those of us who will be keeping track of results live, the polls in Pennsylvania and the other four Tuesday states all close at the same time: 8 p.m. ET. That means results from all states will likely begin coming in shortly thereafter. It may take several hours for most of the results to be reported, and official totals should be available Wednesday morning.

That is, except for the results of the Republican primary in Pennsylvania. The state has 71 Republican delegates, but 54 of them will be unbound. Along with voting for a presidential candidate, people will cast votes for delegates on the ballot. Those individuals are not bound to vote for any specific candidate at the convention, and they don't need to tell voters which one they plan to support. So, in a sense, Pennsylvania's results for the Republican primary won't be in until July, when the Republican National Convention takes place. The remaining 17 delegates from the state will go to whichever candidate gets the most votes statewide.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sec. Hillary Clinton will be competing for 189 pledged delegates in Pennsylvania. These will be allocated proportionally based on the primary results. The state also has 21 "superdelegates" who aren't bound to vote according to the primaries. The supers have until the Democratic National Convention to decide which candidate to support.

Polling out of Pennsylvania paints a pretty picture for Clinton and Donald Trump. Real Clear Politics' polling average puts Trump around 20 points ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz, with Gov. John Kasich in third. Clinton leads Sanders by about 17 percent.

People who decide that they want to vote at the last minute in Pennsylvania may be out of luck. The state holds closed primaries, meaning you must be registered as either a Democrat or Republican to participate in the respective party's primary, and the deadline to change your affiliation was in March. You can check online to see if you are registered and, if so, what your affiliation is.

You might want to have some coffee after dinner on Tuesday so you'll be alert from 8 p.m. ET onward as results from the five northeastern and mid-Atlantic states pour in.