Much has already been written about the protest movement by Michigan Democratic voters to vote “uncommitted” in their recent presidential primary. The Washington primary also has this option (at least for Democratic voters). What would (or should) be the consequence if one selects this option? If enough people select it, the Democratic Party should send a commensurate number of “uncommitted” delegates to the national convention.
In 2020, Washington was entitled to 109 delegates, 20 of which were “unpledged” delegates (also often called “superdelegates” as they were selected from the congressional delegation and the governor). The remaining 89 “pledged” delegates were proportionally allocated according to the election result. In 2020, the “uncommitted” vote was only 0.4 percent, so there was no “uncommitted” delegate.
Uncommitted delegates may be useful at the convention as they are not pledged to a particular candidate (despite the fact that they will be part of the “pledged” contingent), to help break a deadlock, or in case the plurality candidate becomes incapacitated (as is not completely impossible with a geriatric candidate like Joe Biden). So voting “uncommitted” is not necessarily a waste of your vote.
