OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A broader group of voters in Washington is getting a say in the state's Democratic presidential nominee process Tuesday.

Democrats are using the vote-by-mail presidential primary — moved up this year from May — for the first time to allocate delegates instead of the smaller caucuses used in previous years.

Of the six states voting Tuesday, Washington — with 89 pledged delegates at stake — offers the second-highest number of delegates to be divvied up, behind Michigan's 125.

Because ballots only have be to postmarked by Tuesday or dropped at an election box by 8 p.m., final results could take days or weeks to calculate.

The Washington ballot has 13 candidates on it, along with an ‘uncommitted’ option. But it's essentially a two-person race between former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. President Donald Trump is the only candidate listed for Republicans.

As of Tuesday night, turnout was near 40%, with more than 1.8 million voters having returned their ballots. The numbers don't reflect ballots dropped in drop boxes Tuesday or those which may still be in the mail. The majority received thus far— nearly 1.2 million — are Democratic ballots.

Gagan Thind, 39, dropped her ballot off at a drop box in Seattle Tuesday, saying that she and her husband both voted for Biden “because we wanted the best chance to win against Donald Trump.”

Seattle voter Jillian Kessell, 22, said she voted for Sanders because “Elizabeth Warren wasn’t in the race anymore.”

The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season. Biden has won at least 670 delegates so far, while Sanders has won at least 574, according to an AP delegate count. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has two.

In 2016, Sanders won more than two-thirds of the delegates from the Washington caucuses that year, which were attended by about 230,000 Democrats. More than 800,000 Democrats sent in ballots for the primary later that year — which Hillary Clinton won — even though their vote didn't count for the nominating process.

The state Democratic Party's central committee voted last year to start using a hybrid system that uses the state’s vote-by-mail system for a presidential primary to apportion delegates to candidates, and caucuses and conventions to select which delegates will represent the state at the national convention in Milwaukee in July. Also last year, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a measure moving the state's presidential primary from May to the second Tuesday in March.

Both parties have rules that only voters who identify with a party may participate in the primary to allocate delegates to the national nominating conventions. Washington state has no party registration, and in order to have their vote in the presidential primary counted, voters must sign a pledge on the envelope affirming to being either Republican or Democrat. They can only vote in the race that corresponds with their party. As of Tuesday night, more than 65,000 ballots were at risk of being invalidated because a party was not chosen, or in the case of 781 voters, they chose both parties. Elections officials will contact each of those voters to see if they want to select a party in order to have their vote count.

Of the 89 pledged delegates, 58 of the delegates will be allocated based on the outcome in congressional districts and the remainder will be allocated based on statewide results.

An additional 18 delegates are “automatic” delegates. Also known as superdelegates, they are not pledged to any particular candidate, but following changes made after the 2016 election, they cannot vote on the first nominating ballot at the national convention.

Will Casey, a spokesman for the state Democrats, said that under Democratic National Committee Rules, if any listed candidate hits the 15 percent threshold in voting, they are allotted delegates, even if no longer in the race. Those delegates will be pledged to that candidate on the first ballot, though they can ultimately be released by that candidate.

In order for the uncommitted category to have delegates, it also must hit that same threshold.

On Monday, Deanna Knudsen of Snoqualmie said she had already cast her vote for Warren although others had tried to sway her into waiting in case Warren dropped out.

“My belief is the primary is the time to vote your heart, and the general is the time to vote with your head and be pragmatic,” she said, adding that she will back the Democratic nominee no matter who it is.

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AP writer Lisa Baumann and AP photo stringer John Froschauer contributed to this report from Seattle.