Voting in Washington presidential primary ends Tuesday

Washington’s presidential primary might be anti-climactic for Republicans and ignored by Democratic officials, but voters who are interested still can cast ballots before 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Ballots must be properly marked and deposited in drop boxes or mailed and postmarked by that deadline. Unlike most elections in Washington, voters also must indicate they consider themselves a Republican or Democrat who hasn’t taken part in the other party’s presidential nominating process this year.

As of Monday night, less than 1.2 million of the state’s 4 million voters had turned in their ballots.

Voters must check a box above the signature line on the outer envelope and select a candidate from that party on the ballot. Voters who don’t check a box will be contacted by elections officials to make that choice. Voters whose party affiliation on the envelope doesn’t match the candidate selected will have their ballot discarded.

Although Donald Trump is the only Republican candidate still campaigning for president, Republicans have three other choices on their ballots. Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out after the ballots were printed, and Ben Carson never officially notified state elections officials he had dropped out of the race. Republicans can pick one of the four, and the state party will award all of the state’s delegates to the national convention based on the results of the primary.

Democrats have two options, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. But the state party will award none of its delegates based on primary results. It uses the caucus and convention system. State officials still will tabulate and report those results and candidates might mention them in the coming days as a sign of support in Washington.