VALPARAISO | The county election board rejected all requests for poll watchers during today's primary election.

Permission was sought from supporters of Democratic presidential candidates U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, according to Democratic election board member J.J. Stankiewicz.

The potential watchers had hoped to be on hand to prevent Republicans from crossing over to taint the outcome of the Democratic presidential race, said Sundae Kubacki, Republican representative in the county voter registration office.

The requests were denied, in part, because neither Clinton nor Obama's campaigns were requesting the move, Stankiewicz said. There also were no requests for watchers from the heads of the local political parties.