Yesterday was the Washington Presidential Primary for Republicans and Democrats. Washington does not require a voter to be registered in a particular party, but the voter does need to declare a preference or an affiliation for the election. Once declared, a particular voter cannot vote for candidates from the other parties. I did not see an Independent or an Other option, however there were protest votes. On the Democratic side, there was a campaign underway for people to vote Uncommitted, and on the Republican side, there is a continuing effort for Nikki Haley even though she has formally withdrawn from the primary contest. The results were that 85.6% of Democratic primary votes went to Biden while 7.5% of ballots went to uncommitted delegates, leaving 6.9% in some other category. On the Republican side, Trump picked up 74% of votes, Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the race but was still on the ballot, is pulling 22%, and the remainder were scattered for Ron DeSantis (also dropped) and some miscellaneous categories. Some of Haley's 22% represents cross-over Democrats doing protest votes, but we cannot determine how many.
The uncommitted-as-protest group will claim victory based on the 7.5%, however the significance of the Uncommitted vote is unclear. The 7.5% participation is a small number of the whole and no one knows what it would have been without the protest vote. Therefore the other side (who?) can also declare victory. In the end, the uncommitted-as-protest campaign was much sound and fury signifying nothing.
As in the last decade, the vote was primarily by mail with scattered drop boxes usually located near libraries, post offices, and the like. I have not heard any reports of irregularities.
As of "Super Tuesday", Trump and Biden have clinched the required number of delegates to secure their nominations. For all intents and purposes, the Presidential campaign season has begun.
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