Nearly 335,000 ballots are on their way to Snohomish County voters today for the presidential primary election — the most complicated Washington state election in memory.

For Democrats, it’s a beauty contest.

For Republicans, all votes count for about half.

For a slew of Snohomish County school districts, the election will spell whether there’s money to build some schools, buy new computers for students or help keep the buses running.

Ballots are due back by Feb. 19.

Washington is different. Both presidential caucuses and a presidential primary election are planned.

“You don’t normally have both,” Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock said. “We’re one of the few states that have both.”

It’s not such a brain buster, she said. Even so, her office already is peppering voters with fliers trying to explain how it all works.

They want to keep it simple: Just follow the instructions on the ballot.

“We don’t want to scare people off,” Diepenbrock said.

What election officials can’t control is that the election is sort of a moving target.

Just eight of the 16 presidential hopefuls on the ballots being sent by Snohomish County are still in the running — three Democrats and five Republicans. Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat John Edwards dropped out Wednesday.

The field will be narrowed next Tuesday, Super Tuesday, when two dozen states across the country will choose their favorites.

Then, on Feb. 9, Washington’s political parties meet in caucuses to choose their delegates. Democrats will allocate 97 of their delegates at their caucuses.

Even though Democrats don’t plan to use the ballot results from the Feb. 19 election in allocating delegates, they still want people to vote.

“It’s kind of tough when people don’t think it’s going to count,” Snohomish County Democratic party chairman Mark Hintz said. “Obviously it will be a bellwether. I think it will corroborate the findings of the caucus and make it a much stronger position if the voters continued on and did vote.”

“It’s a selection process, not an election,” Hintz said.

Republicans will choose about half of their delegates based on the caucuses and half based on primary election tallies.

“We truly believe the voters in Washington state ought to have a voice even if they don’t make it to our Republican caucuses,” said Geri Modrell, Snohomish County’s GOP chairwoman.

Voters in the presidential primary are required to declare a party affiliation to have their vote count. The school measures don’t have that requirement, though. It is not necessary to mark a vote among presidential candidates for the rest of the ballot to be counted.

“The Pacific Northwest thinks it is invasive, but the rest of the country doesn’t,” Diepenbrock said. “We’re a very independent area and we want to be able to have our choices. That doesn’t necessarily mix very well with political parties.”

Secretary of State Sam Reed is advising voters to hang on to their ballots at least until next week to see how the dust settles after Super Tuesday. He and state party leaders expect candidates left standing to beat a path to Washington state.

Between 45 percent and 47 percent of voters in Snohomish County are expected to cast ballots. That means at least 151,000 voters, Diepenbrock said.

“We do recognize that Super Tuesday has a huge impact on this election,” she said. “As candidates drop out, if there is an absolute front-runner after Super Tuesday, we will see our participation diminish.”

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.