USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

As both parties find themselves in unexpectedly tough nomination battles, the nation's eyes are on Wisconsin and its presidential primary Tuesday, hoping to find some clarity in the voting results.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders hopes a big victory in Wisconsin can propel him past Hillary Clinton in a series of upcoming contests in the Northeast. On the Republican side, Ted Cruz is betting a big win in Wisconsin will slow Donald Trump's momentum enough to force a contested convention.

Across the state, poll workers are reporting larger-than-usual turnouts and long lines at some locales. Though this is the first major election under Wisconsin's voter ID law, there have been few reports of problems at polling places.

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin will publish frequent updates from around the state all day to keep you on top of the latest news.

8:30 p.m., Wausau

The Rib Mountain Municipal Center, south of Wausau, was so packed with voters today that poll worker Betty Dotseth was called in around noon, before her 2 p.m. shift started.

She said the biggest rush of the day came between 3 and 7 p.m. Dotseth did her best to bring people in to the lobby, but the lines stretched into the rain and sleet.

Some people got through in a few minutes, others waited up to an hour and a half, Dotseth said — longer if they had to register.

Symbria Piskoty voted for the first time Tuesday night in Rib Mountain. She had to wait about a half-hour — not as bad as she expected after customers at her workplace complained of two-hour waits.

Piskoty did see a big line when she entered the municipal center, but it wasn’t the line she needed and a good Samaritan put her on the right track.

Dotseth said she felt tired as the last voters wrapped up around 8:15 p.m., but she was heartened that so many waited to vote.

“I personally am ecstatic that so many people find this particular election to be so important that they would wait in line so long,” she said. “So many young people registered to vote.”

8:10 p.m., Appleton

Strong voter turnout, combined with a high number of voters who needed to register, has led to long waits at Appleton’s Alexander Gym.

The polling site at Lawrence University drew a large number of students and many who were voting in Appleton for the first time.

About 35 people were in line to register at about 7:30 p.m. and another 40 to 50 people stood in line to receive ballots as election wound to a close. Those who got into line before polls closed at 8 p.m. will be able to vote. For many evening voters, it’s taken patience.

Alyssa Haak of Appleton arrived at the gym just before 6 p.m., made it through registration and still awaited her ballot at 7:30 p.m.

Based on the pace, “It’s going to be two hours for sure,” she said.

8:05 p.m., Manitowoc

As the polls closed in Manitowoc County at 8 p.m., County Clerk Lois Kiel said the day, overall, went “very well.”

Long lines and wait times have been reported for polling places around the state, though Kiel said local voters typically didn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes to cast their ballot.

Kiel said she witnessed one 15-minute wait for voters in the town of Newton while delivering some extra ballots. She said the “parking lot looked like the County Fairgrounds.”

“It was unbelievable,” Kiel said. “People in Manitowoc County are not accustomed to waiting in line to vote. You walk in, you vote, you walk out, but today, they had to wait. They had to wait, maybe, 15 minutes, but nothing too outrageous.”

7:50 p.m.

Some are wondering if Gov. Scott Walker dropped out of the presidential race too soon. Conservative talk radio host Steve Deace and FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver weighed in shortly before the polls closed:

7:30 p.m., Green Bay

Voter turnout may exceed 50 percent of registered voters in Brown County, Clerk Sandy Juno said at 6 p.m.

“We just know that it’s extremely busy everywhere,” Juno said. “Based on feedback I’m getting and additional ballots we’ve printed, I think it’s very likely we’re going to hit 50 percent or higher.”

The highly-contested races are attracting a lot of first-time voters, Juno said.

6:45 p.m.

Sanders has flooded Wisconsin airwaves with ads in the lead-up to the primary — more than any other presidential candidate, in fact.

He ran 5,774 spots, while Clinton ran 3,278, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of Kantar/CMAG tracking data.

As for Republicans, Cruz has run the most ads in Wisconsin, the analysis found. He also has led in most recent polls of the state. Here’s the GOP ad count, including for various outside groups, from March 23 through April 4:

• Cruz: 2,167

• John Kasich: 1,178

• Trump: 1,090

• Our Principles PAC (anti-Trump): 809

• Club for Growth (pro-Cruz/anti-Trump): 638

• Trusted Leadership PAC (pro-Cruz): 611

• New Day Independent Media Committee (pro-Kasich): 295

6:25 p.m., Marshfield

Marshfield election officials scurried to make hundreds of additional copies of voter registration applications Tuesday afternoon because of heavy turnout at the polls.

The city clerk's office provided an extra 700 copies of the registration applications to Marshfield’s three voting sites, according to City Clerk Deb Hall.

The action was necessary, she said, because more people than expected have been voting throughout the day.

“I think this election is exceptionally high, which is great,” Hall said of voter turnout.

6:15 p.m., Sheboygan

Sheboygan City Clerk Sue Richards said that, while they’ve not had any problems with voter ID, there’s been an immense rush of voter registrations at the polls that has slowed down some polling places. Part of that is because of more recent law changes that require a specific proof of residency when registering.

Richards said, however, that the new registrants have prompted two red flags for the November general election: There aren’t enough poll workers — there’s more than 100 working today throughout the city — and there will probably be another rush of voter registrations come fall.

“If we only get 60 percent turnout of registered voters today, I really think we’re going to have at least 80 percent (in November) and lot of those people will probably not be registered,” Richards said. “Plus, absentee voting in November is going to be huge. You think it balances out, that the people doing it now will take pressure off for November, but somehow… it’s just so hard to predict.”

6:10 p.m., Stevens Point

Voters in the central Wisconsin village of Plover faced lines of about 100 people in the after-work crush — lines that stretched outdoors and left voters standing in the rain-snow mix for a half-hour before they got indoors.

One woman told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she had tried to vote three times during the day but been thwarted each time by long lines.

6 p.m., Green Bay

In Ward 15 at the First United Church of Christ, 509 S. Webster Ave., a ballot mix-up has led to a line that now stretches to the door.

Poll Captain Ann Hartman said a packet of ballots for another ward was mixed in with the ballots for Ward 15. Hartman said poll workers discovered the problem when voting machines would not accept the ballots.

“We figured it out pretty quickly, then had to give new ballots to voters. Now, we’re catching up,” Hartman said. “Every vote has been counted. Nobody was disenfranchised, just frustrated.”

5:50 p.m.

CNN early exit polls show Wisconsin voters feel trade with other countries leads to job loss in the U.S.

Half of voters in the Republican primary and slightly less than half on the Democratic side said trade with other countries costs more jobs than it creates, CNN reported.

5:45 p.m., Appleton

Here are some answers to common questions we’ve gotten from readers:

1. Can I vote in both POTUS primaries? No, you have to pick one or the other. But you can vote in either without publicly declaring a party status like other states require.

2. Can I use an out-of-state driver's license as an ID? No, out-of-state driver's licenses don't work. If you have a veteran's ID card or a U.S. passport, those meet the state law, though.

3. Does my current address need to match address on my ID? No, as long as you are registered to vote at your current address, you can vote with a passport or other acceptable ID that lists a different address. The ID is to prove identity, not residency.

4. Will my student ID card work as an ID? The IDs must have a signature, photo, issue date and an expiration date within two years of the issue date. Many universities do not meet this standard and have created "voter IDs" students can get. Otherwise, use a Wisconsin driver's license, a U.S. passport or other acceptable ID card.

5. If the polls close at 8 p.m. and I'm still in line when it hits 8, will I not be able to vote? If you're in line by 8 p.m., you will be able to vote.

6. If I turn 18 by the November presidential election, but I’m only 17 now, can I vote in the primary? No, you must be 18 to vote in a Wisconsin election.

5:30 p.m., Stevens Point

Voters in Stevens Point’s District 3 are waiting anywhere from 20 minutes to three hours to cast a ballot.

David Ligman, chief inspector at the polling place, located at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s Dreyfus University Center, said a big turnout for the district has, in the past, topped out at around 200 voters. As of about 4:45 p.m., more than 450 voters had cast ballots.

5:20 p.m., Appleton

An Appleton spokesman earlier today said the city is anticipating 85 percent turnout in the election while the state Government Accountability Board is predicting more like 40 percent statewide.

So is Appleton way above average? Not necessarily.

The gulf between the two numbers is a result of different formulas used to determine percent of voter turnout.

Some clerks use percent of eligible voters while others use percent of registered voters.

City of Menasha Clerk Debbie Galeazzi said she uses the number of people who voted divided by the number of eligible voters to get voter turnout. She was hoping to get between 40 and 45 percent turnout and said mid-afternoon Tuesday that she thinks she might reach that goal.

The GAB uses the same formula as Menasha and has projected a 40 percent turnout for Tuesday's election.

The City of Appleton uses the total number of voters divided by the number of registered voters, City Clerk Kami Lynch.

4:40 p.m., Green Bay

Carrie Zittlow, deputy clerk for the Village of Allouez, said there had been no problems with IDs for people wanting to vote. She said she expected numbers to reach those cast in presidential elections.

First-time voter Courtney Pool brought her 6-month-old, Landen Evans, along to vote at the Allouez Village Hall. She supported Sanders.

"I just really want him to slow down Hillary and Trump,” she said. “To be honest, I don’t really like any of them that much.”

Shawn Simon of De Pere said he was undecided when walking out of First United Presbyterian Church’s polling place. He learned he was at the wrong poll, and said he had about five minutes to make up his mind, but was leaning toward Trump.

“The main thing is he’s never been in politics his whole life, and we need something to change,” Simon said. “If we keep electing the same people, nothing changes.”

He hesitates to give Trump full support because of some of the things he has said about minorities and other countries.

“I feel like some of the things he says he should not say,” Simon said. “We’re also picking the U.S. spokesperson, so we have to be careful about how they look to the rest of the world.”

4:35 p.m., Appleton

Young people were turning out today, as demonstrated at the polling place at Lawrence University's Alexander Gym. The university ran shuttles during voting hours to make voting more convenient for its students.

About 3 p.m., the line of those waiting to register was more than 20 people deep and out the door.

For many, it was simply about civic duty. First-time voter Spencer Chantelois, a Lawrence freshman, said he made the trip to the polls in support of Sanders’ bid for the Democratic nomination.

“If there wasn’t a candidate like him, I probably wouldn’t be out here,” he said.

3:24 p.m., Oshkosh

Just before 2 p.m., there were no lines at the Algoma Town Hall, just outside of Oshkosh, where about 820 people had already cast their ballots, said Kristin Janssen, chief election inspector.

“Since the polls opened at 7 a.m., we’ve had a steady stream of people,” Janssen said.

Some folks ended up arriving at the town hall, which usually serves as the town’s only polling place, only to find out they needed to head to an overflow polling place at All Saints Lutheran Church.

Despite the first general election since Wisconsin implemented its photo ID requirement, Janssen said it was not that big of an issue and even saved poll workers time if they did not hear the voter’s name or didn’t know how to spell it. Instead, the most common issue poll workers experienced were people who voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates in the presidential primary.

“We haven’t had anything unpleasant,” Janssen said.

3:09 p.m., Green Bay

A steady stream of voters filtered in and out of the Green Bay Botanical Gardens, the city's most western polling site. Workers there had counted 659 voters as of 2:50 p.m.

One of them, 66-year-old Beth Lachat, had decided at the last minute to switch her vote from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary.

"I'm taking a chance in him," she said. "There is just something about him. I like what he stands for."

3:07 p.m., Wisconsin Rapids

The stream of voters entering Howe Elementary School in Wisconsin Rapids hadn’t stopped all day, said Robert Teeselink, chief inspector for the site.

“It’s been busy all day,” Teeselink said. “Usually, there are lulls.”

By 3 p.m., the number of voters at the site exceeded 1,500, Teeselink said. There have been more voters at some presidential elections, but Teeselink couldn’t remember having that number for a spring election.

3 p.m.

TIME reported that the campaigns on both sides of the aisle are "trying to manage expectations for a state that is among the more sophisticated in America." Gov. Scott Walker's 2010 election, 2012 recall election and 2014 election wins "have left Wisconsinites savvy when it comes to candidates.”

2:45 p.m., Green Bay

In Green Bay’s Ward 30, close to 300 voters had cast ballots by noon at First Presbyterian Church, Poll Captain Caroline McMahon said. She said voters have steadily come and gone throughout the day following an early morning rush.

Dianne Shifflett and Kari Semrau have voted at First Presbyterian for 28 and 30 years, respectively, and Tuesday was no different. The only complaint they had was that the normal Election Day bake sale didn’t happen this year.

“It’s my duty,” Semrau said. “I’m not sure I agree with anyone, but I put in the vote for the best person I thought.”

2:30 p.m., Green Bay

At the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay polling station, the wait time is 50 minutes. About 80 to 90 percent of the voters at that location are registering for the first time or needing to be registered. Non-students are complaining about the lack of parking and difficulty getting to the polling place.

“We have been waiting in line for about an hour, but it’s worth it,” said Lucas Wuensch, a 19-year-old UWGB sophomore from Crivitz. “There’s talk this is the longest line that’s ever been here for voting.”

2:16 p.m., Sheboygan

Sheboygan City Clerk Susan Richards said the city has seen a strong voter turnout as of noon. When asked how the turnout stacks up against recent primaries, she said, “I don’t remember it being this high by noon in the past. It’s really hopping out there.”

At Mead Public Library, a polling place in downtown Sheboygan, workers took time to thoroughly address any questions from first-time voters, whom poll workers agreed were showing up to the library in large numbers. At around 1 p.m., the voter registration table was by far the busiest portion of the polling location.

“It’s great because, in November, all of these people who are registering will be able to go right up,” said Linda Schroeder, election poll chief.

Schroeder said the voter ID requirement has not resulted in any problems or slowed registration at her location.

“There’s always going to be someone who groans about it, but we haven’t even had a single complaint today,” Schroeder said.

1:36 p.m., Appleton

Voter turnout in the city and surrounding communities is unexpectedly strong.

"Strong turnout is being reported at all our polling locations," Appleton spokesman Chad Doran said. "There have been no issues reported so far. There is a strong turnout of same-day voter registration at many of our polling locations as well."

Vicki Tessen, deputy clerk in Kimberly, said voters had been steady through the morning. She ordered additional ballots today to ensure they'd have enough to meet turnout driven by the presidential primaries. She said Wisconsin's role in the national picture is driving interest.

"Usually, Wisconsin isn't a deciding factor," she said.

Polling workers in the Town of Neenah reported a heavy flow of voters through the lunchtime hour. One worker told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that they were “already on voter No. 651. That’s relatively high for this time of day.”

11 a.m., Manitowoc

Manitowoc County Clerk Lois Kiel and Manitowoc City Clerk Jennifer Hudon both said more voters have marked their ballots today than is typical in the early hours of an election day.

"I live in the village of Whitelaw and I voted there at 7:30 a.m., and I was No. 30," Kiel said. "Normally, I'm No. three or four."

Hudon concurred, saying her morning has been "extremely busy."

The city reports 3,080 voters as of 11 a.m. The county reports 8,776 voters.

One issue poll workers shouldn't face is a lack of ballots, as both the city and the county have ordered more than usual in preparation for the higher number of voters.

"We did reorder ballots beyond our initial order because we were concerned about how the turnout was coming here at City Hall," Hudon said. "We expect a very busy day."

9 a.m., Stevens Point

While voting was busy on the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point campus Tuesday morning, poll workers said there were no serious issues or delays relating to students and the new state law requiring voters to show a valid photo ID before being allowed to vote.

Nancy Kemmeter was one of two workers on staff helping with voter registration at the city’s third district polling place, located in the Dreyfus University Center on campus. She said students who didn’t have a Wisconsin driver’s license were able to get a voting ID in the Dreyfus Center.

“We’re very fortunate that they can get those IDs right here, it’s helped keep things running smoothly,” Kemmeter said.

8:30 a.m., Wausau

With a compelling mayoral race and provocative presidential primary on the ballot, early morning voting on Wausau's southeast side was similarly brisk. As of 7:50 a.m., 125 people had cast their ballots at Pilgrim Lutheran Church, the polling place for Wausau's Districts 1 and 2.

About 25 people were lined up at the door at 7 a.m. when the poll opened, said Tanya Pagel, a chief inspector at the site.

“We’ve had a steady flow since then,” Pagel said. “People want to get their votes in before going to work.”

8 a.m., Fond du Lac

Turnout in the election is predicted to be the highest in 36 years. The state elections board predicted 40 percent of eligible voters will cast ballots in the April 5 election. That would be the highest for a presidential primary since 45 percent voted in 1980.

Fond du Lac County Clerk Lisa Freiberg said that the number of newly registered voters is high this year. In late March, she requested additional ballots to ensure that all eligible voters receive a ballot.

Although lines might be long for voters, Freiberg doesn't want them to stay home. Make the best of it, she said.

"Maybe you'll carry on a conversation and meet somebody new."