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'Acela Primary': Voters Hit The Polls In 5 Northeastern States

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Whether you call it the Acela Primary, the I-95 Primary or Super Tuesday Part Four, people in five states in the Northeast are voting today - Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

We heard from voters today like Bob Vinci, a Bernie Sanders supporter from Middletown, Conn.

BOB VINCI: I voted because I think this is a crucial election. The country could go either way. I believe this is a turning point. I believe I voted for the correct person. We need change. We need - the establishment needs to go.

MCEVERS: Both front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are expected to do well and expanded their delegate leads. And in Newport, R.I., Steven Doroch voted for Trump.

STEVEN DOROCH: I want change. I've had enough of the system the way it works and the way it doesn't work, actually. He's not an insider. He's not a normal person. He's different. He doesn't belong to the status quo.

CORNISH: Alice Cross of Barrington, R.I., told us she wanted to vote for John Kasich in the GOP primary but couldn't because she was a registered Democrat.

ALICE CROSS: I'm fine with Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, but I wanted to make my vote against Trump. Alas and alack, I couldn't do that.

CORNISH: In the end, she says she voted for Hillary Clinton.

MCEVERS: Jim Marcil was volunteering for the Sanders campaign, and he spent a rainy morning holding an umbrella for voters outside of a Pawtucket polling station.

JIM MARCIL: You know something. I've always voted in all the elections, whether it's a primary or whatever. This time I really have the passion for it because Bernie gives us all that passion, the chance that finally a working person can actually get somewhere.

CORNISH: We'll be following results from Rhode Island and all the states in play today. Stay tuned for special coverage of today's primaries later tonight on many NPR stations and online at elections.npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.