Biden declared winner of Washington state primary

Former US Vice President Joe Biden was on Monday declared the winner of last week’s Democratic presidential primary in Washington state, giving him victories in five out of six states that voted March 10.

After nearly a week of counting votes, the former vice president held onto a small lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that turned out to be insurmountable.

The reason for the delay in announcing the winner is that all of the state's voting is done by mail, which can extend the time it takes to report results.

Washington was a state that Sanders had been hoping to win. In 2016, he won more than two-thirds



of the delegates from the Washington caucuses over Hillary Clinton.

Of the state’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.

Biden won four other states last Tuesday: Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan and Idaho. Sanders won North Dakota.

Four states are scheduled to hold primaries on Tuesday. They are: Arizona, Ohio, Illinois and Florida.