Mitt Romney wins Washington state's straw poll

Mitt Romney has won Washington state's presidential straw poll.

With about 54 percent of the precinct votes counted by early evening Saturday, Romney has 37 percent of the vote, followed by Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, who were tied at 24 percent. Newt Gingrich had 11 percent.

Republicans had predicted up to 60,000 people attending Saturday's caucuses. The results released Saturday afternoon were based on more than 21,000 votes counted from 30 of the state's 39 counties. Romney has won 18 of the counties, Paul has won eight and Santorum has won two.

While the caucuses are a nonbinding contest, state Republicans say it could create momentum for the four candidates on their last stop before Super Tuesday, where voting takes place in 10 states.

Washington state will send 43 delegates to the national convention in Tampa in August, and the caucuses are the first in a multistep process to officially allocate 40 of those delegates to a candidate. Three additional are automatic delegates, and include the state party chairman.

Earlier in the day, precincts drew so many people that many locations were standing room only and one Eastern Washington location turned away hundreds of people.

Tony Benegas, a member of the Benton County Republican Committee who ran the Kennewick caucuses, estimated up to 800 people were turned away from Three Rivers Convention Center. Organizers had expected about 1,500 people, but many more showed up Saturday morning.

Benegas said the caucuses were run by volunteers, and there weren't enough to check everyone in. He said there also weren't enough computers to help voters look up their registrations, and the rooms were full.

"There's not much we can say, except, 'We're sorry,'" he said. "We tried to get as many people in as possible."