Major parties in Washington state held presidential caucuses on February 9, and will hold presidential primaries on Tuesday, February 19. For Democrats, the caucuses were used to choose all the state’s delegates to the national convention; for Republicans, half the delegates are chosen according to caucus results, and half according to the presidential primary results.

As far as is known, no state has ever before held both caucuses and primaries so close together in time. Therefore, the Washington state events will provide interesting data on the difference in results between caucuses and primaries.

The presidential primary is all-mail, except in King and Pierce Counties. Voters who vote by mail must check one of two boxes, or their votes won’t count. One box says, “I declare that I am a member of the Republican Party and I have not participated and will not participate in the 2008 precinct caucus or convention system of any other party.” The other box says, “I declare that I consider myself a Democrat and I will not participate in the nomination process of any other political party for the 2008 presidential election.” Voters at the polls must sign in and also check one of those sentences. Obviously, a voter must use the appropriate party’s ballot, after choosing that party.

Each of the two major parties will receive a list of which voters checked the box for that particular party. Mail ballots were mailed to voters on February 1 and must be postmarked by February 19, so the results will be slow to be tabulated.

Names on the Democratic ballot are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson. Names on the Republican ballot are Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson.

Filing has closed for the Pennsylvania primaries for all federal and state office this year. Pennsylvania has 203 State House districts. Of those 203 districts, in 103 of them, either no Republican filed to be on the Republican primary, or no Democrat filed in the Democratic primary.

At the April 2008 primaries, primary voters are free to nominate candidates by write-in vote. But no one can be nominated unless he or she receives at least 200 write-in votes. This is difficult, so it is likely that there will be very few, if any, major party nominations filled by write-ins at the primaries.

In 2008, there are 56 districts in which no Republican filed, and 47 districts in which no Democrat filed. By contrast, in 2006, there were 44 State House districts with no Republican on the November ballot, and 29 with no Democrat.

On February 5, the North Carolina Democratic and Republican Parties told the State Board of Elections which names to list on presidential primary ballots.

Democrats on the list are Hillary Clinton, Mike Gravel, and Barack Obama.

Republicans on the list are Mike Huckabee, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, and Mitt Romney.

The State Board of Elections will meet in early March to decide whether to remove Mitt Romney’s name, since he has withdrawn. The primary is May 6.