Although the winners for the Washington presidential primary were known minutes after the 8 p.m. deadline — if there was any doubt before then — that doesn’t mean there is nothing to learn from the final results.
The most interesting takeaway for political geeks, and possibly the most troubling for the presidential campaigns, was that while the total number of ballots cast was way down from four years ago, the number of people who did not vote for the winners was significantly higher.
About half of the state’s voters cast a presidential primary ballot in 2020. Because the Democrats had a crowded race and Donald Trump was running unopposed for reelection, more than two-thirds of the ballots cast, some 1.5 million, were marked for Democrats.
Shortly after Washington’s 2020 presidential primary ballots were mailed to voters in late February, some Democratic candidates dropped out. Four contenders — Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren — called it quits in the week before the voting deadline but still got significant votes along with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.