Sanders wins big in Island County caucuses

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed a sweeping victory over rival Hillary Clinton in Island County's Democratic presidential caucuses today. According to numbers released by the Island County Democrats this afternoon, Sanders took home 219 delegates to Clinton's 97 delegates. Sanders won by a deciding margin in each of the four caucus locations: South Whidbey, Coupeville, Oak Harbor and Camano Island.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed a sweeping victory over rival Hillary Clinton in Island County’s Democratic presidential caucuses today.

According to numbers released by the Island County Democrats this afternoon, Sanders took home 219 delegates to Clinton’s 97 delegates. Sanders won by a deciding margin in each of the four caucus locations: South Whidbey, Coupeville, Oak Harbor and Camano Island.

Broken down, Sanders claimed 74 delegates on South Whidbey to Clinton’s 33; 32 delegates in Coupeville to Clinton’s 14, 72 delegates in Oak Harbor to Clinton’s 21, and 41 delegates on Camano to Clinton’s 29.

Party Chairman Art Huffine said the results make clear Island County’s preference, but he couldn’t say whether it will prove an accurate  a barometer for Washington overall.

“How that compares to the rest of the state, we’ll have to see,” Huffine said.

Including surrogate votes — absentee ballots — about 3,360 people participated in the caucuses. That’s about 800 more people than the 2,560 at the county’s 2008 caucuses.

Of the four locations, South Whidbey had the largest turnout by far with 1,547 participants. Coupeville had 569, Oak Harbor 611, and Camano Island 631.