State: Washington
Type of election: Caucus
How it works: Voting begins at 10 a.m. local time and lasts until noon. While Washington does not have partisan voter registration, participants must be registered and have to sign a form saying they "generally consider themselves to be Republican." Washington previously held a primary, too, but that has been canceled for 2012. 40 delegates are at stake.
Official election results: Washington Secretary of State
Republican candidates: Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum (all others have dropped out or are polling at less than 1 percent)
Democratic candidates: The Democratic Caucus is on April 15.
Previous performance: In 2008, Paul finished third in the caucus with 22 percent of the vote and Romney finished fourth with 15 percent. In the Republican primary, Romney finished third with 16 percent and Paul finished fourth with under 8 percent. Obama won both the Democratic primary (51 percent) and caucus (68 percent).
Newspapers: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, full list
Television stations: Full list
Progressive blogs: Horse's A**, Washblog
Latest polling: Public Policy Polling is the only firm to test the state's voters:
Bottom line: Polling is sparse and turnout is expected to be relatively low compared to other states so far, but Romney looks favored to win and could have good momentum going into Super Tuesday. There were some questionable tactics by party officials in the 2008 Republican caucus and it seems like those officials tend to favor Romney this time around, so expect a close election to lean in his direction.
