Illinois Republican Primary 2012 Results: Where To Watch Live

All eyes will be on presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney as the results roll in from Illinois' Republican primary Tuesday night.

Four GOP hopefuls -- Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul -- are all on the ballot, but the race for delegates has largely dwindled down to two.

At stake are 54 of Illinois' 69 Republican convention delegates (the other 15 will be chosen later by party leaders). Romney is well ahead in the race with 522 delegates, according to the Associated Press. Santorum has 252 delegates.

Polls indicate that Romney will take primary. A Public Policy Polling survey predicts former Mass. Gov. Romney will win with a 15-point lead over ex-Penn. Sen. Santorum, 45 percent to 30 percent. Another Fox Chicago/WAA poll shows Romney leading 37 percent to Santorum's 31 percent.

Santorum is hoping for an upset in President Obama's home state. At a campaign stop in Illinois, he told a crowd of supporters, If we're able to come out of Illinois with a huge or surprise win, I guarantee you, I guarantee you that we will win this nomination.

Below is information on where to look for results of the 2012 Illinois primary, where to watch the contest unfold on TV and online, and how to follow on Twitter:

When to Start Watching: Primary polls close at 7 p.m. CDT, or 8 p.m EDT. Results will begin rolling in county-by-county throughout the rest of the night. Media outlets will call the winner if the outcome is clear; if it is not, it may be a long night. The winner for Arizona, for example, was declared almost immediately after polls closed on Feb. 28, while in Mississippi on March 13, Gingrich, Romney and Santorum were all within one digit of each other -- for three hours.

What's at Stake: Fifty-four of Illinois' 69 total delegates will be awarded to GOP candidates Tuesday night. Illinois has a so-called Loophole primary in which each of Illinois' 18 congressional districts directly elect two to four delegates to head to the national convention in August. Additionally on the ballot is a separate beauty contest vote for a candidate that has no influence on delegate assignments. More information about the Loophole Primary can be found at the Green Papers.

Where to Watch Live: CNN will be covering the Illinois primary Tuesday night, time to be announced. If a television is not available, the coverage will be streaming live on live.cnn.com. Fox News' Illinois coverage can be found online at live.foxnews.com. Politico's new live show will feature reporters talking about the results as they come in. You can catch Politico Live beginning at 7 p.m. EDT on C-SPAN, www.politico.com/livestream and Politico's iPad and iPhone aps.

Where to Get Live Results: Google is always a reliable source in getting the most update numbers coming in from a primary. We will also be live-blogging exit poll information, candidate speeches and the latest numbers here at the International Business Times, so be sure to check it out.

How to Get Results on Twitter: Search for the hashtag #ILprimary to follow the conversation about Illinois on Twitter You can also look at this list of campaign staff, reporters and pundits for live commentary on the contest: https://twitter.com/#!/sara_dover/politics