Today is day of the Iowa Straw Poll. The winner of the straw poll will be announced will be announced tonight at 7pm (CST). I'll have the results posted here when they become available.

The latest polls in Iowa indicate that Romney will likely come out on top, and I think that will be the case. Brownback, Huckabee and Thompson have all indicated that they'll need a top three finish in order to stay in the race. So this will be the point where the field starts to thin out

There is some live-blogging going on, I suggest you check it out here and here.

[UPDATE - 8:44pm] I'm watching Fox News and waiting for the results to come across the screen. They were supposed to be released by now. Ann Coulter is getting irritated due to the 40+ minute delay in the release of the results.

[UPDATE - 8:51pm] Ahhh, there has been a problem with the voting machines. I'm sure this will fuel the conspiracy theories inside the Ron Paul camp.

[UPDATE - 8:57pm] Fox News is confirming the voting machine issue.

[UPDATE - 9:08pm] Byron York notes the low turnout at Ames: "[W]ord is going around that fewer than 14,000 people voted — compared to the nearly 24,000 who voted in 2000."

[UPDATE - 9:18pm] There a post with the title, "Duncan Wins!" over at the Corner @ NRO. It startled me for a moment. I thought that Duncan Hunter (the anti-trade, xenophobic and protectionist Congressman from California) had won the straw poll.

[UPDATE - 9:28pm] The results are in from Ames, Iowa:

Mitt Romney -- 4516 (31.5%)
Mike Huckabee -- 2587 (18.1%)
Sam Brownback -- 2192 (15.3%)
Tom Tancredo -- 1961 (13.7%)
Ron Paul -- 1305 (9.1%)
Tommy Thompson -- 1039 (7.3%)
Fred Thompson -- 203 (1.4%)
Rudy Giuliani -- 183 (1.3%)
Duncan Hunter -- 174 (1.2%)
John McCain -- 101 (1%)
John Cox -- 41 (0.1%)

I am surprised to see that Fakeabee finished second. I'm also surprised that Tommy Thompson did better than Duncan Hunter. With that, I'm fairly certain that Hunter will be ending his campaign with in the next few days.

[UPDATE - 10:41pm] It seems almost certain that Hunter is out of the picture, or at least he will be in a few days. Jonathan Martin suggests that Brownback maybe as well:

After putting in the effort he did today and in the weeks leading up to Ames, Brownback's third place finish will prompt questions about his ability to carry on in the race.