Source:
NY TimesAs many as 1.5 million votes are projected to be cast in Washington State’s presidential primary on Tuesday. The question is whether they will count.
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More problematic is that the state Democratic Party long ago said it would award its delegates based solely on the results of the statewide caucuses that were held on Feb. 9. The party says a record 250,000 people turned out for the caucuses, which Senator Barack Obama won by 36 percentage points.
So it appears that the primary, first approved in a 1988 referendum with the goal of giving greater voice to voters who might not be able or inclined to attend a party caucus, may have the distinction of being one of the few essentially irrelevant contests in a presidential race so fierce this year that even outposts like Idaho and Alaska have nudged their way into the national spotlight for a moment or two.
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Mr. Reed insists the primary remains important.
“If Hillary Clinton can come back and win the Democratic primary in the state of Washington after Obama won the caucuses, you’d better believe people will be talking about that for a long time as she looks for momentum going into Texas and Ohio,” he said.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/us/politics/18washington.html