Almost 17,500 Washington voters in the state's primary (not caucuses) will not have their ballots counted. Why? Because they didn't follow the rules -- prominently stated in red on their ballots -- to declare themselves either a Republican or a Democrat.

Nearly one in four King County voters who mailed in their ballots did not identify themselves as Democrat or Republican, nullifying their votes in the presidential primary.

The elections office Friday called it a combination of protest and error. Some voters do not want to publicly declare a political party, even though their vote remains secret. Other voters might not know their votes will not be counted unless they choose a party.

It won't matter in terms of delegates. As Big Tent Democrat wrote earlier, the delegates in Washington are picked from the caucus results today, not next week's primary.