Photo by ericschoon

Live updates by Sarah Anne Hughes and Matt Cohen

The April Fools’ Day primary is underway. The polls are open until 8 p.m. It’s time to vote.

We’ll be updating this post with election updates until 8 p.m. tonight before switching over to another live blog for the election parties. Let’s do this.

8 p.m.: We have a new live blog! Follow us here.

6 p.m.: Wells and Fire Chief Keith Ellerbe, whose resignation the mayoral candidate has called for, met at a Ward 7 precinct today.

5 p.m.: With a public schedule that just reads “at various precincts citywide” from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Mayor Vince Gray has been hard to track down. But, we managed to catch him at the Kennedy Recreation Center in Ward 2 late this afternoon. Thus far, Gray feels pretty good about his chances. Though the voter turnout was “light earlier in the day,” he says, Gray thinks now is the time a majority of voters will head to the polls.

Still, it’s undeniable that today’s election narrative has been low voter turnout. Gray thinks it’s because the Democratic primary was pushed to April, which he thinks was a “bad idea.” Unlike Jack Evans, Gray doesn’t think the low voter turnout will help his chances. “Low voter turnout doesn’t help D.C.,” he says. But Gray remains confident about the election and his campaign. “Even my opponents don’t criticize our record,” Gray says.

4:20 p.m.: There’s still about three-and-a-half hours left to go vote. So far, the turnout has been low, causing Marion Barry to say things like this:

As the Post’s Tim Craig points out:

4:10 p.m.: Despite not getting their ballot initiative short title and summary statement approved by the Board of Elections in time to start collecting signatures today, the D.C. Cannabis Campaign was nonetheless at it today.

They’ll be able to start collecting signatures for their marijuana legalization ballot initiative later this month, but the exact date hasn’t been determined yet. They’re doing everything they can to get the word out until then:

3 p.m.: Which fake mayoral account will you miss the most? Fake Tommy Wells? Fake Muriel Bowser? The parody Orange4Mayor? MendoMustache? Update: MendoMustache is here to stay!

2:50 p.m.: Are you wondering where the candidates are hanging out tonight while they wait for results? Find out below.

Mayor Vincent Gray — Hyatt Regency Washington (400 New Jersey Avenue NW) at 9 p.m.
Muriel Bowser — First floor cafeteria, Imagine Southeast Public Charter School (3100 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE) at 8 p.m.
Tommy Wells — Top of the Hill (319 Pennsylvania Avenue SE) at 8:30 p.m.
Jack Evans— Stoney’s Lounge (1433 P Street NW) at 8 p.m.
Andy Shallal— Busboys and Poets (5th and K streets NW) at 8 p.m.

2:40 p.m.: Candidates gotta eat. Traveling around to lots of voting precincts in all the Wards builds quite an appetite, and what better way to satiate that hunger than at Ben’s Chili Bowl? Muriel Bowser knows what I’m talking about.

Bowser was taking a break from visiting the polls and talking to voters with a split half-smoke, what she “always orders” at Ben’s. And how’s the day been for Bowser so far? “We feel great,” Bowser says. Many think this is basically a two-person race at this point, between Bowser and Gray, and Bowser is confident in her voters showing up to the polls, despite the many reports of low voter turnout thus far.

So far today she’s visited precincts in Wards 1, 2, and 3 and is planning to hit up the rest of them after lunch. Though despite what many have reported, Bowser says she’s seen a good voter turnout at all the places she’s visited. Especially her own precinct, where she says 85 people showed up within the first hour.

Other precincts aren’t so lucky:

1:20 p.m.: So far the narrative of today’s election seems to be the low turnout. But that might be the key for some candidates lagging in the poll. At the Kennedy Recreation Center in Ward 2, Councilmember Jack Evans seems confident that the low voter turnout will work in his favor. “Lower turnout is good for me,” he says, “because I know my people are voting.”

Evans says he visited every precinct in Ward 2 and most precincts in Wards 3 and 4, all of which seems to have had minimal voter turnout. At some precincts, he says, there were only one or no voters there. Evans says that around 133,000 people voted in the last Democratic primary, and 106,000 voted in the 2006 one. He thinks today’s numbers will be much lower than that.

Upon leaving the Kennedy Recreation Center, Evans said he’s heading to precincts east of the Anacostia River to greet voters before he heads back to Ward 2 and prepares for his watch party at Stoney’s on P Street NW. Evans assured me that his watch party is going to be better than any other candidates, especially Tommy Wells’, which he thinks is probably happening “at some vegetarian restaurant.”

Editor’s note: It’s happening at a bar in Capitol Hill

1 p.m.: Which restaurants donated to which candidates? Find out via Young & Hungry.

Noon: Outside Eastern Market, Councilmember David Grosso campaigned for Ward 6 Council candidate Charles Allen, who he endorsed along with Ward 5 incumbent Kenyan McDuffie and Ward 1 challenger Brianne Nadeau. (He said choosing Nadeau over Councilmember Jim Graham was not a “quick decision,” but she represents Grosso’s mission for a “new day” on the Council. Sixteen years, Grosso said, is too long for a Councilmember to serve. “And you can quote me on that in 16 years,” he joked. Grosso also said he doesn’t think Graham is the same person he was when he was elected and it showed in “the way he’s run his campaign.”)

As an Independent, Grosso cannot vote for any of his preferred candidates.

Grosso said he watched his wife go inside a precinct to vote this morning and thought, “Too bad I can’t join her.” This turned to a conversation about Grosso’s open primary bill, which would allow registered voters the opportunity to change party affiliations through election day. The Councilmember also said he supports allowing non-citizen residents vote in local elections.

Allen agreed, saying two of his supporters just became citizens after spending 40 years in D.C. and being an active part of the community.

When asked about low voter turnout, Grosso said he expects more people to vote after the work day ends. But April 1 is not a great day for a primary, he said.

Allen and Grosso were joined by Sharon Ambrose, who represented Ward 6 on the Council from 1997 to 2005. Ambrose, who is chairing Councilmember David Catania’s Independent run for mayor, said today’s outcome will show who should not be mayor. “It’s a new race, it’s a new campaign,” Ambrose said, adding that “now we can start talking about issues.”

Ambrose said Catania is making the rounds today at different precincts.

11:30 a.m.: Turnout, turnout, turnout.

11:00 a.m.: At the Reeves Center, which is home to many city agencies, like the District Department of Transportation, voter turnout is pretty dismal. About 30 minutes ago, Ward 2 Councilmember and mayoral candidate Jack Evans was here to greet voters. Not sure if he took all the voters with him when he left, but if this was the scene when he was here, well, yikes.

10:30 a.m.: Gray voted at the East River Washington Senior Wellness Center, telling reporters, “I voted for Vincent C. Gray for mayor.”

10:24 a.m.: Bowser arrived at Eastern Market at around 10:15 a.m. to talk with voters. The only problem? They are hardly any here. When asked how she’s feeling today, Bowser said she’s “feeling strong.”

She also shared a very pleasant exchange with one of Andy Shallal’s daughters, who was out representing her father’s campaign. Bowser complimented the campaigns pins, with Shallal complimented Bowser’s campaign colors.

10 a.m.: For some recently realigned precincts, voter turnout remains low. At Garrison Elementary School in Ward 1, people have been slowly trickling in and out, and the few times I stepped in, there were no more than five people present at a given time.

That could be because of the D.C. Board of Election’s recent realignment the precinct boundaries for the 2014 Democratic primary. For Garrison Elementary, it changed from precinct number 22 to 111. Could this explain the low voter turnout thus far? Maybe. Or it might just be the low voter turnout in general that’s plagued this election so far. As the Post reported, 14,000 residents voted during early voting, which is 8,000 less than the Democratic primary four years ago.

9:43 a.m. Outside of Eastern Market, Councilmember Tommy Wells was confident, saying he planned to rally his base. “If Ward 6 comes in strong, we put the whole race into play,” Wells said.

A Charles Allen volunteer who had been at the precinct since 7 a.m. said voter turnout had been light. Wells’ campaign manager, Chebon Marshall, pointed to the early primary schedule.

Wells and his wife, Barbara, entered Eastern Market to vote at 9:39 a.m.

8:43 a.m.: Anecdotally, voter turnout is looking kind of pitiful.

They are exceptions.

8:30 a.m.: Councilmember Muriel Bowser voted shortly after the polls opened at La Salle Elementary (Precinct 65). Mayor Vincent Gray was scheduled to be there at the same time, but was delayed, meaning the two mayoral frontrunners did not meet. Gray will vote later this morning at Precinct 113, located at the East River Washington Senior Wellness Center.

A preview of things to come?

Technical problems with voting machines have been reported at Payne Elementary School and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. Both have been resolved, according to the D.C. Board of Elections.

Filed Under: dcision14, mayoral candidate,