GOP Presidential Straw Poll Vote to be Released Saturday Evening

Republicans from around Washington state met Saturday morning in precinct caucuses to elect local delegates and vote in a presidential straw poll, the results of which will be announced Saturday evening.

Patch will update the straw poll in a story here as soon as the results are available, along with an account of the caucuses and comments from local participants.

Patch live-blogged from more than a dozen caucus sites Saturday morning, including from Mercer Island's , where organizers say somewhere between 225 to 300 people met in 44 precincts from Mercer Island, a turnout higher than in 2008. Participants elected delegates who pledged to vote for one of the four remaining candidates: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich.

They also participated in a straw poll, but local numbers were not released to Patch at the event (Mercer Island Permanent Pool Caucus Chairman David Laub and 41st LD GOP Chair Jackie Dunbar said they would try to contact Mercer Island Patch with Mercer Island-specific results later tonight).

Delegates selected today will meet again at the 41st Legislative District Caucus — back at Islander Middle School — on March 31. Ultimately, a state GOP convention will elect 40 delegates in June to send to the Republican Party National Convention on Aug. 27 in Tampa Bay, Florida.

You can still check out our blog, full of comments by local participants, by clicking here.