Not a lot of Washingtonians necessarily used to that.

So maybe in the future, with other primaries, we will see an even higher turnout.

But again, right now, statewide, we're seeing a very narrow race.

Bernie Sanders and lead by just a couple 100 votes.

Joe Biden.

Hang in there.

It's It's been a pretty I would say That's not a great sign for Bernie Sanders.

And he hasn't been really seeing Granny Great signs today.

Yeah, this has kind of been referred to.

March 10th is like a mini super Tuesday, six states voting in their primaries tonight.

I understand our producer telling us we have some results to show you once again if you could pull those up full screen right now.

So this is the presidential primary for Washington State wide.

Look at that.

Now, Bernie Sanders, now in the lead of and these are obviously you separated by about 1200 votes right now.

Yeah, this razor thin.

Very interesting and that it is very much interesting because Bernie Sanders Washington State was a big stronghold for him in 2016.

And this year he's not having as good a performance, though he is still in the lead right now, and he's going to get quite a few delegates from the state of Washington.

The question is, will be enough delegates to keep him in the race.

The momentum right now for him?

Certainly.

Yeah.

89 delegates up for grabs total in Washington State, 29 to hold the big prize kind of tonight was Michigan.

Understand?

With Michigan was the big one tonight, 125 delegates up for grabs and Joe Biden winning every single county in the state of Michigan.

Right now, that really seemed to kind of turn the tide.

You can see there.

Joe Biden, 54 39.

Joe Biden kind of separated from the field first during Super Tuesday.

We first saw him gain momentum in the South Carolina primary.

He won Super Tuesday.

Quite a few states.

Bernie did win California, which was huge.

But in Super Tuesday, Biden started to separate.

And now here you could make a case that Michigan is kind of the final blow to the Sanders campaign.

It will be very difficult for Sanders to come back, but a huge win in Washington could mean is kind of like last hanging on point.

Sure.

Hey, stick with us because we have a question from a viewer right now, we want to go to right now about kind of this primary process with the ballots in Washington.

Casey, A lot of folks uncomfortable with declaring a party on the outside of their ballot.

Yeah, the question there about why it has to be on the outside of the envelope.

And ironically enough, the answer is to protect your privacy.

Now, it might seem a little weird toe, have you know your party affiliation and your signature on the outside of the ballot for anyone, Really?

Just the mailman to see right.

But the thing is, when they count the ballots, they want to have the actual ballot separate from any indication of what your name is, who you are.

They don't want those two things to be connected and all when they're actually tabulating the balance.

We need them to be separate.

And so they have to make sure that anything of the signature anything of that could identify you is on the envelope or outside, not attached to the ballot.

So even though it seems like maybe that is invasion of your privacy.

The argument for it is that it protects your privacy.

So we mentioned statewide right now.

Sanders in the lead narrowly versus Biden.

What about our local results?

Okay.

Spokane County elections office.

There was a line out the door there earlier tonight leading up to eight o'clock tonight.

Very, very busy.

Crime to Houston Fan has been there pretty much all evening.

He's joining us now.

Live with how everything went and as they continue to count those ballots.

Tim Yeah.

You guys down to the last minute.

Someone walked in here 30 seconds before the polls.

We're going to close and he got his vote in, but yeah, this place was bustling earlier, and it's much quieter now.

And I got a really commend the Spokane County election office.

They move quick here because as soon as the the door's closed and we're locked within minutes, they gave us the results that we could bring it to you.

So they are working very hard, and they say they will be out of here by 9 30 tonight, counting all the votes.

And then by tomorrow morning, obviously more votes will come in.

But as you guys were just talking about with the concern people have with their ballots and choosing a party and signing it.

This is a sample ballot, the one that got rejected essentially, and it was actually the parties that decided to have it on the outside of the envelope.

So, you know, a lot of people came in frustrated today, saying, you know, why are you guys making a sign and declare our party?

Well, it was actually both the Republican and Democratic parties and the Legislature that approved that process toe happen on the outside of the envelope.

Nonetheless, people who did not do one of those things signed the oath or pick a party.

The those ballots are rejected, at least for now, because and we're told that 5% of Washingtonians who participated in this election did not follow the steps properly, and that's just from what they've received so far.

So you might be receiving a notification that you might need Thio fix your ballot, otherwise your vote won't count.

So, as we've been telling you, both parties, primaries are listed on the same ballot in Washington this time around.

But you could only pick one or the other to vote in, and you had to sign that statement on the envelope promising you didn't vote for both.

So again, this is a new process.

Election officials are very aware of that and that there's gonna be a learning curve.

So if your ballot is rejected, you'll get a second chance.

A letter will be sent to you, Uh, if you have an incomplete ballot, giving you one more opportunity to correct the mistake.

Now.

There's also another question that I've been seeing a lot on.

Social media and people.

Wondering is, What about the candidates on the Democratic side that have since dropped out?

What happens to your vote if you chose one of them?

While election officials tell me that these ballots were printed actually two months ago, and it's up to the party to decide what to do with those results?

There are names on the ballot that have since dropped out, and it will be up to the Democratic Party to decide what to do with those votes.

But we will count every boat as marked for each one of those candidates, and report that to the Democratic Party.

So far, thousands of letters have been sent out to voters, letting them know that their ballot was rejected.

So if you do receive one of those letters, you only have until March 19th to fix the mistake and then get it back to your election office by the 19th of this month because they certify the results on March 20th.

So you'll want to make sure you do that if you want your vote counted.

Interestingly, right now, voter turnout in Spokane County is still sitting around 40% or so about 39% which is actually very comparable to the West Side.

Right now, King County is sitting at 40% although the Spokane auditor tells me that they anticipate that number to go up closer to 50% here in Spokane County for this primary election, which is good turnout, she tells me.

But for now, reporting live in Spokane County.

I'm Tim Fam creme to news.

All right, Tim, thank you very much.

We know that the early returns have just come in starting at eight.

About 8 15 tonight, not including all of the ballots that were dropped in all of the post office boxes and in all of the drop boxes located around the county.

Yeah, just initial returns.

Are Casey Decker standing by right behind us, kind of in his election center tonight with those initial returns from Spokane County Case.

Yeah, guys.

And right now you mentioned initial return Spokane County.

What we're seeing is that about 117,000 ballots have been counted with about 10,000 more to go, so I wouldn't expect a whole lot of change in the outcomes here.

Then again, the outcomes are pretty narrow.

Let's go and take a look at the Spokane County results again, as we mentioned before.

Joe Biden currently with a Barrow.

Very narrow victory.

Just 228 votes.

Not even victory.

Just a lead right now.

228 votes over Bernie Sanders.

Mike Bloomberg.

Also coming in with 15% right now.

That's a pretty interesting number right there, considering he is no longer in the race.

A lot of people filling out their ballots before candidates like Bloomberg, Warren Klobuchar, Buddha judge started dropping out and work and we can see here it's enough that it's arguably is changing the outcome of these races in Spokane County.

At least right now, though, Biden, with a very narrow lead about 10,000 votes still left account in Spokane County.

And they want to actually show you one county that I was just looking at.

That really surprised me here.

This was incredibly interesting to me.

Douglas County right now, Douglas County one by Bernie Sanders in 2016 73 26.

Right now, Douglas County is being won by Michael Bennett.

Michael Bennett is somebody who dropped out of the race weeks ago, and we said We just actually now got new results.

This was the original results.

Michael Bennett was winning.

He had 20 votes.

Now we've got an updated results a little more normal.

We're seeing Joe Biden right now with 34 Bernie Sanders of 29 Michael Bloomberg with 14 there.

So Spokane County, right now going to Biden, Bernie Sanders with just a couple 100 votes behind, and we'll take one more.

Look now at King County.

King County, also obviously a big decider in a lot of these elections, going to Bernie Sanders in 2016 and we'll go ahead and take a look at King County.

Now hear how it's looking in 2020.

Bernie Sanders still winning this time, though not by a lot.

And we saw Michael Bloomberg with 15% in Spokane County in King County.

It's different 15% winner Elizabeth Warren, but she also dropped out of the race.

So again, a lot of folks, in this case, at least 60,000 nearly 60,000 people voting before these candidates dropped out, or even maybe deciding to vote for them even after they had dropped out.

And finally, one more county now that I want to look at.

And that's Whitman County just to our south here, the area where Pullman is at Washington State is that Whitman County went very heavily to Bernie Sanders In 2016 you see their 79% Hillary Clinton just 20%.

And this year it is actually still one of Bernie Sanders Best County.

So far now, obviously, only a few 1000 votes in this county altogether so far.

Bernie Sanders, 39 Joe Biden only coming in with 17 and Elizabeth Warren, also with 17.

So Bernie Sanders, still doing pretty well in Whitman County this year, even though he's comparably struggling compared to 2016 in some of those other gears will send it back to you.

Mark it, Whitney.

We could bring you back up here to the set to kind of join us real quick.

I got a question for you because this year, as he pointed out, Washington and Idaho went to a primary versus the caucus.

You seem kind of What you're saying is that means turnout is probably higher.

But I guess what?

The ballots went out weeks ago, at least of Washington.

So a lot of these candidates are in the race right now and that that could have an impact.

Yeah, absolutely.

It is one of the thing.

One of the possible downfalls that we knew about going into this switching to the primary and specifically switching to the vote by mail system.

Right.

Because in Idaho, if you're actually going to the polls, you're probably not voting for somebody who just saw dropped out of the race.

But if you get your ballot two weeks ago and you're filling it out in the kitchen table and you're saying I like Elizabeth Warren a lot, I don't care what the polls say.

Like right now, that's my candidate.

Resend that it.

And then two days later, she drops out.

Well, what happens now?

Earlier today, I think that the Spokane County elections Office they were saying that it's up to the party to decide how they will handle the delegates that went to those candidates who have now dropped out right, And I believe the way