In a night where no surprises were expected, none were had. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has won all five states up for grabs in today’s primary elections.

On the ballot today were Romney, former Senator Rick Santorum (who dropped out too late to have his name wiped from the slate), former Congressman Newt Gingrich and Congressman Ron Paul.

For a time in this frantic, tumultuous, protracted primary season, it was thought that these Northeast states might have a meaningful say in the outcome of the race to the Republican presidential nomination. But when Santorum suspended his campaign on April 10th, Romney officially took on the mantle of President Barack Obama’s top challenger.

Now that the polls are closed and over 90 percent of the votes have been tallied, the results reflect an unequivocal win for Romney. According to the Associated Press, he received over 55 percent of the vote in each state, climbing up to nearly 68 percent in Connecticut.

Santorum’s numbers did not break 10 percent in any state except his home state of Pennsylvania, where he climbed to over 18 percent. Gingrich and Paul, however, raked in consistently modest but notable results — Gingrich topping 27 percent in Delaware and Paul approaching 25 percent in Rhode Island.

Romney’s victory speech reflected his new status as presumptive nominee, as he attacked Obama.

“Tonight is the start of a new campaign to unite every American who knows in their heart that we can do better!” he said from a celebration in New Hampshire. “The last few years have been the best that Barack Obama can do, but it’s not the best America can do!”

But the inevitability of Romney’s win also resulted in an extremely low turn-out. In New York City, even at a heavily Republican polling site, traffic was nearly non-existent. Public School 52 in Staten Island houses six election districts that are home to 1433 registered Republicans. But by 2:00 p.m., only a handful of voters had cast their ballot. In one election district with approximately 250 eligible voters, only two had checked the box for their candidate of choice.

Polling site coordinator Rosemarie Catrama has been working election days at P.S. 52 for five years, but this was one of the quietest she’s seen.

“I think most of the people know who the Republican primary candidate is going to be, so there’s not much to choose from this time,” she said.

Despite the certainty of today’s election results, the nomination will not be official until the Republican convention in late August, and Romney does not yet have the 1144 delegates he needs to lock that in. But tonight’s election results bring him much closer to the magic number.

The 2011-2012 Republican nominating contest began more than a year ago, well in advance of the first caucus in Iowa on January 3.

Until now, Romney was never able to completely break away from the pack. His front-runner status was always in question as Santorum surged and Gingrich held on.

Today’s sweep of wins finally gives Romney an official trouncing of his rivals. But it also puts to an effective end the roller coaster ride of a primary season has gone from something like Space Mountain to something more like the tea cup ride at Disney World.

Over a year ago, Donald Trump took the presidential primary stage. He grabbed attention by professing the “birther” argument, suggesting that Obama was not born in the United States even though the claim had been repeatedly debunked.

Herman Cain’s candidacy spiked and then plummeted this fall amid major gaffes and multiple allegations of workplace sexual harassment.

In August, 2011, Congresswoman and Tea Party firebrand Michelle Bachmann won what’s known as the Ames straw poll in Iowa, which some pundits said was a sign her candidacy stood a chance of victory in that state’s official primary contest. But her numbers did not sustain her, bringing her only a paltry sixth-place finish.

For a time it seemed that Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, might walk off with the nomination. His candidacy took off as conservative Republicans rallied around him. But after a memory meltdown during a live televised debate in which he could not recall one of the three federal agencies he would seek to shutter, his campaign floundered and never recovered.

Not long after he announced his candidacy for president, Newt Gingrich sailed off on a cruise with his wife. Soon, the political punditry declared his campaign dead as his organization seemed scrambled and his coffers seemed to run dry. But the former Speaker of the House made a surprise comeback in late 2011, surging in the polls and giving Romney yet another run for his money.

Gingrich’s numbers had cooled in the weeks before the Iowa caucus — the nation’s first primary contest. Few predicted Santorum’s win there, and it was indeed so close that the 34 vote margin wasn’t declared until more than two weeks later.

Since the primary elections started to roll across the country, most of the votes have been shared among Romney, Santorum and Gingrich, with nominal but consistent numbers going to Paul. Though Romney pulled out several victories, it was never enough to shake off his competitors and cinch the nomination.

Finally, with tonight’s cluster of unquestionable wins, the Romney campaign can officially call his nomination inevitable — something they had been hoping, and trying to do throughout the past year.

The video was produced by Kait Richmond and the story was written by Nicole Guzzardi

More than 150 people, mostly women and a handful of men, gathered yesterday evening at the CUNY Graduate Center for the “War on Women: An Evening of Basic Training” panel, to hear about women’s issues and how they could contribute to stopping the alleged war on women.

The event, which was sponsored by New York State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, included a panel of feminists, who spoke on how the war on women was real, serious, and in need of further discussion.

“Everyday, I think, when I go to bed at night, that something’s happened that’s outraged me as woman, as a citizen, as somebody who believes in civil rights, and equal rights, and privacy,” Krueger said to the packed crowd.

Issues such as contraception and abortion, which have faced recent debate in the media from the Republican party and President Barack Obama, were a few of the topics speakers highlighted as facets of the war on women.

But some women, like Tatyana Belosouv, a 22-year-old economics and finance student at New York University and treasurer of the NYU Republicans Club, believe social issues like these shouldn’t be the focus of the government at all. Instead, she said, the presidential election should focus more on what the government will do to fix economic problems.

“We’re never going to get everyone to agree on social issues, so why not talk about economic issues, a majority of job losses have been for women, economic opportunities for women, small business ownership by women,” she said.

Others, like Kelly Ziemer, 28, from the Upper East Side, agree that the ongoing economic crisis in the United States is of more immediate importance than social issues, but say that because social issues are continuously being brought up as discourse, so they must be explored.

“I absolutely believe there’s a war on women right now,” she said. “Considering these women’s issues are being brought up, it is important to discuss them and fight for them.”

Belosouv, who is in the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps, a college-based program for training military officers, said she doesn’t believe a war on women even exists and thinks the word war is being wildly misused.

“I don’t appreciate the term war being thrown around so liberally, it degrades the meaning,” she said. “I certainly don’t consider it a war, because that term to me represents a lot of things, a lot of horrible things, that I don’t see happening.”

She said there are far more trying things women have been through, that might be better considered war.

“You know what was a war, women fighting to serve in the Armed Forces,” she said. “You know what was a war, women fighting to be able to stay at their jobs after having a baby, or have any job other than a teacher, a secretary, or a nurse.”

While Belosouv may not believe the current issues at hand are enough to be deemed war, other young women, like Ashley Rearick, 25, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who attended the panel, strongly disagreed.

“They don’t even care about violence against women,” Rearick said about Republicans who oppose renewing the Violence Against Women Act, which provides funding towards the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women. “How can you not consider that a war?”

While a few women acknowledged that more women in general, whether Democrat or Republican, are needed within the government in order for there to be substantial conversation, some believed that having a woman in office who doesn’t support women’s issues will not help.

Shelby Knox, 25, the Director of Women’s Rights at change.org, said it all boils down to rights, and that a woman who isn’t for women rights won’t be useful in fighting the war.

“I think that when women are in the room, no matter what their political allegiance, the conversation is different because their life experiences are different,” she said. “But I will say that, remember, that being a woman does not necessarily mean you are pro-woman and that one of the patriarchies’ best tools is having someone who looks like us and acts like them.”

Ken Johnson, 80, a conservative Republican from Lycoming County, Pa., plans to vote for Mitt Romney for president. Photo by Louie Lazar.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa – In the wide, sparsely populated valley below Bald Eagle Mountain, about a block from the Lycoming County Courthouse at 212 Pine Street, David French sat in an office behind a desk piled with booklets of the U.S. Constitution and leaflets reading, “Stop Obamacare in Pennsylvania.” French, a board member of the Williamsport Tea Party who “lives up in the hills” in nearby Cogan House Township and considers himself a “conservative Republican, with an emphasis on conservative,” is far from enthusiastic about Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and presumptive GOP nominee.

“Nobody likes him. Nobody wants him,” French said Monday morning inside Tea Party headquarters, sharing what he considers the accepted view among fellow conservative activists towards Romney. “He’s a New England establishment Republican. He comes from a part of the party that should’ve been dumped 30 years ago.”

But French, a serious-looking man of 69 with his thinning hair buzzed into a crew cut, said that he will nonetheless back Romney in November, if reluctantly.

“We’ll support whoever the [Republican] party comes up with,” he said.

French is one of several conservatives in this Pennsylvania county who, in interviews conducted here on Monday and Tuesday, expressed deep skepticism of Romney and his right-wing credentials. Yet for a majority of these likely voters, the prospect of a second term for Obama is so frightening that they remain committed to punching the Republican ticket in November.

A fast growing city in the heart of central Pennsylvania, Williamsport is the self-hailed “Epicenter of the Natural Gas Industry,” and home to the Little League World Series. With about 27,000 residents, it has the largest population of any city in the greater Susquehanna Valley and in surrounding Lycoming County, the largest county in all of Pennsylvania. This rural, poor county, with an average income of about $27,000, is also one of the state’s most conservative: John McCain defeated President Obama by 24 points here in 2008. Four years earlier, George W Bush trounced Senator John Kerry by nearly 37. Once known as the “City of Churches,” spires dot the horizon, and every quarter hour church bells echo throughout the valley.

Under a steady late morning rain in downtown Williamsport on Monday, conservative Republican Marcia Johnson, a senior citizen who is both a pilot and a standout bridge player, said that she will happily support Romney in the general election. But she did have early doubts.

“At first I wasn’t for him because I think Massachusetts is kind of liberal,” said Johnson, who initially supported Herman Cain because she thought he could attract black voters. So why has she decided to back Romney in November?

“Well, I’m sure as hell not voting for Obama,” she said, her spirit peppy and her hair in a gray bonnet. “I think Obama is ruining the country. He’s a socialist. He’s a Marxist.”

Her husband, Williamsport native Ken Johnson, a talkative, cheery 80-year-old wearing a jacket with an airplane logo, had little to say about Romney, but agreed that removing Obama from office was a priority.

“Anybody but Obama,” he said, wearing a hat with the letters UFO, referring to United Flying Octogenarians, a club of active airline pilots over age 80. “His government is out to destroy the country.”

“He’s never really shown his birth certificate,” Ken continued. He also said he doesn’t think Obama is in the country legally. His wife nodded.

“I can’t understand why he hasn’t been impeached already,” said Marcia. She added that she believes Obama is a Muslim.

But not all conservatives here are as open to voting for Romney. Or as cordial.

About a mile away, as rain turned to small hail while a dense fog on Bald Eagle Mountain drifted horizontally across its green slopes, a huge, middle-aged man with a white, grizzly beard emerged from his house on Washington Boulevard, next to Williamsport Cemetery. A visitor had inquired about the man’s garage, and about the sign on its door that read, “East End Gun Specialty Sporting Goods and Live Bait.” Asked whether he plans on voting in November, the man, who declined to disclose his name, uttered a racial epithet in reference to President Obama, then turned angry.

“If it’s between that jackass we have in office, and that moron from New England, I’d rather not bother,” he barked, with numerous expletives peppered throughout the sentence. He said he has supported Republicans in the past, but that he prefers not to discuss politics. Asked if he had voted in the 2008 Election, the man turned silent.

“There’s the door,” he ordered, pointing in the direction of the cemetery.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, at the same time polls throughout Pennsylvania opened under still-overcast skies, Lycoming County Commissioner Tony Mussare, a Republican who “leans Tea Party,” said over oatmeal and coffee that it is “kind of a joke that [Romney] is the guy the Republicans are going to nominate.”

“My God, Mitt Romney – are you kidding me?” cried Mussare, a short, passionate man with a round face who makes solid eye contact. “Go look at his flip flop videos. Almost every notable policy he’s changed his mind. Is that a conservative? I don’t think so.”

He cited Romney’s past positions on gun control, abortion, and health care as just a few reasons why he thinks many in the Tea Party will not vote for the former Massachusetts governor.

“Now will I vote for him? I certainly will if he’s our candidate,” he said.

Mussare, a small business owner, believes that Romney will “excel in understanding the needs of businesspeople,” and that the economy is the country’s top concern. Plus, there’s another, more significant issue.

“Not everything that Barack Obama does is evil,” he said, “But he’s further to the left than a socialist. Socialism wouldn’t be enough for this guy, and I don’t mean this jokingly.”

Fracking companies routinely plow plots of land in order to run pipelines through the countryside. Here a clearing in the mountains of Sullivan County, Pa Photo by Eric Zerkel

LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa -Tucked between sprawling green hills and meandering creeks, where the roads run narrow and dirty, Drake Saxton and Andrea Young take refuge.

For Saxton and Young, life in Moreland Township is a labor of love, 25-years of dedication to perfect their dream bed and breakfast, each log, each stone, each building hand built over-time; a place where they could retire to the unspoiled serenity of central Pennsylvania.

That is, until the methane gas from the nearby hydraulic fracturing well seeped into their drinking water, rendering it unusable, and threatened to end their business. Dangerous levels of the cancer causing gas radon followed, with levels jumping to over 23 picocuries per liter, more than 6 times the safe limit suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“This took us 25 years to build, and it could all be gone,” said Saxton, 64 as he recounted the 14 years he and Andrea spent living in a rehashed chicken coop as they worked on their house. “Once the water is gone, my property is worthless, just like that,” he said.

Saxton and Young are just one example of many Pennsylvanians who have been dealing with the negative side effects of the boom of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” – a process for harvesting natural gas. Their experiences have left them politically dejected, and now they find themselves outcasts in the middle of a hot environmental debate that could boil over in the upcoming presidential election.

“We have told state legislators, we have lobbied their offices, but there is no use in telling them because they have already been told again and again,” Saxton said.

All along the Pennsylvania countryside pads are cut into the forested areas, breaking up the continuity of oaks and birches with the dull rumble of drills, compression pumps and other equipment necessary to tap the gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation below ground.

Drake Saxton indicates how contaminates get into his well water. Photo by Eric Zerkel

“We are in the sacrifice zone, said Ralph Kisberg, 56, a native of Lycoming County. “The rights of people are secondary to what the country wants to do.”

In many cases, access to these drill sites is proprietary, and the mineral rights are exclusive to the property owner. As a result, gas companies with names like Anadarko and XTO send “land men” to knock on the doors of the farmhouses and old Victorians that dot the landscape, offering exorbitant amounts of money for leased mineral rights to their land.

The minimum gas royalty in Pennsylvania is 12.5 percent of all the gas taken from the wellhead. Simply put, the more gas pumped out, the more money a landowner can collect, sometimes into the millions.

“It’s not unusual to see that,” Kisberg said, as he pointed out a sheen green tin roof atop a dilapidated old farmhouse, just feet away from a drill site. “People around here are poor, so when they get their check from leasing their land they run out and by new roofs, new trucks, things they never dreamed of affording.”

Kisberg is the president of Responsible Drilling Alliance, an organization that aims to educate Lycoming County residents on the potential consequences of shale gas drilling. Kisberg, like many others, leased his mineral rights to his property north of Williamsport.

“The land owners, they are all in on it, including myself,” said Kisberg. “They are all rubbing their hands together while they count their royalties.”

But John Trallo, 60, never wanted in. His home, located in the heart of Sonestown in nearby Sullivan County, was supposed to be a refuge from the environmental hazards that marred his past. The wife of his four children died at the age of 42, Trallo said, due to cancer directly related to exposure to the pesticide DDT, sprayed across the farms of his former residence just outside Philadelphia.

“I wanted to get away from the pollution,” said Trallo. “Sullivan County is called ‘the gem of the endless mountains’ for a reason; it’s supposed to be dedicated to preserving that beauty, that peace and quiet.”

Now the land Trallo sought refuge in, has turned against him.

“When you turn on your faucet and what comes out looks like chocolate and smells like diesel fuel, it’s easy to see something’s not right,” said Trallo.

Trallo said he hasn’t had potable water in over 15 months. He said his water source had been contaminated by leaking gas from a fracking well atop North Mountain, just a half mile behind his house. Tests on his water showed shocking results, traces of methane, barium, strontium and arsenic were flowing out of his tap.

“Fracking companies have done more than just change the land, Trallo said. “They have completely transformed it.”

Trallo’s home sits well outside the 2,500-foot zone of “presumed liability” that forces gas companies to assume responsibility for any negative effects of tapping the wells, which he said has left him with few political options.

“I don’t think there is a political solution,” said Trallo. “As long as they (politicians) don’t have to stand in someone’s kitchen and watch as someone lights brown liquid coming out of a faucet on fire, they can deny it.”

Trallo said he had exhausted the same options as Saxton, and was so frustrated with the political climate that he planned on throwing his hat into the political arena, writing himself in as a representative of the 110th District of Pennsylvania.

“I don’t care if I win or lose the election,” said Trallo. “If I can just get people to understand the effects of this industry, that’s all I want.”

On the back deck of his bed and breakfast Drake Saxton stood, staring out over the shallow banks of Little Muncy Creek.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it,” he said with a somber smile.

View from the hill overlooking Drake and Andrea Saxton's Bed and Breakfast. Mr. Sexton said he recently learned that a gas company plans to drill atop the hill, potentially threatening his drinking water. Photo by Eric Zerkel

For the first time the Pennsylvania wilderness offered no refuge.

“No matter who we vote for we run the risk of losing all of this,” said Saxton. “When does it end, and who helps us? No one.”

Today, five states will vote in primary elections. Usually, this late in the line up, the presidential nomination is cinched and voter’s preferences are all but irrelevant. And that looks like it will be the case again.

Not long ago, common wisdom held that this year would be different–that the Republican contest would still be raging and that polls would be busier than normal. But he tide has turned again and New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Delaware once again find themselves in the backwater of primary election history.

With Rick Santorum officially out of the race and Newt Gingrich effectively out of money, the path to the Republican nomination has been cleared for former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney. With the candidate racking up endorsements and attacking President Obama in earnest, there is no question that the general election has begun.

Though today should be be a quiet day at the polls, the reporters at Pavement Pieces will be bringing you the scoop from the states that will be holding elections.