Biden takes Idaho primary; Washington results too close to call

Former Vice President Joe Biden won Idaho’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, and he was virtually tied with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in early statewide returns in Washington.

Biden collected 46,560 votes in Idaho’s primary to 41,104 for Sanders.

It was the first time Idaho Democrats used a primary. In 2016, they used a caucus to select Sanders over Hillary Clinton. President Barack Obama handily won the Democratic contest in Idaho over Clinton in 2008.

Sanders didn’t make a stop in Idaho during the 2020 campaign, though he spoke at a few Idaho rallies in 2016. Biden held an Idaho event in August, drawing more than 100 donors.

In Washington, the state’s 39 counties posted their first batch of results, and Sanders led by about 2,000 votes. Counties will update their results again this afternoon.

As of Tuesday night, Washington’s turnout was near 40 percent, with more than 1.8 million voters having returned their ballots, and just more than a million votes were counted. The numbers don’t reflect ballots dropped in drop boxes Tuesday or those which may still be in the mail. The majority received thus far — nearly 1.2 million — are Democratic ballots.

Of Washington’s 89 pledged delegates, only 31 are allocated based on the statewide result. The remaining 58 are determined based on the results of the state’s 10 congressional districts, and those results might not be calculated until the election is certified by the secretary of state’s office, which could be as late as March 27.

In Idaho’s Republican primary, President Donald Trump had little difficulty winning, collecting 94.4 percent of the votes. In Washington’s Republican primary, Trump was the only candidate on the ballot, and he collected 98.5 percent of the early votes.