And the Winner Is ... It Depends on How You Count the Results

WASHINGTON — And the winner is...

It depends on how you count what happened on Super Tuesday, an amalgam of caucuses, primaries and one state convention (Republicans in West Virginia) that provided a variety of results.

You could tally by vote, by state victories and by delegates won, with the latter being what the game is all about.

By the time each of the five major contenders spoke to their supporters late Tuesday night, each could rightfully cite something that looked like a Super Tuesday victory.

Here are some of the incomplete numbers the candidates were digesting on a night when the nation took the next, sometimes confusing step in the process to replace a president who first got the job despite not winning the most votes in 2000.

TOTAL VOTE

On the Democratic side, in 14 of the states that held primaries (with California's totals not yet tabulated), Hillary Clinton had a slight edge over Barack Obama. She had 4.06 million votes. He had 3.97 million.

On the Republican side, returns (some incomplete) from 14 primary states (also not including California) showed John McCain with 2.04 million votes, Mitt Romney with 1.4 million and Mike Huckabee with 1.19 million.

STATES WON

On the Democratic side, Obama had prevailed in 11 states, Clinton in nine. New Mexico and Alaska were not yet decided.

On the Republican side, McCain won nine states, Romney six and Huckabee five. Alaska was not yet decided.

DELEGATES

Delegate totals were the trickiest numbers to compile, and they also were the only ones that matter. Democrats awarded them proportionally based on vote totals and caucus results. Republicans had some winner-take-all states and some proportional states.

At midnight, a preliminary run of the numbers (not including California) showed McCain, fueled by wins in winner-take-all states, picked up 269 delegates. Huckabee captured 85 and Romney 67. A total of 1,023 delegates were up for grabs.

It takes 1,191 to win the nomination. With Tuesday's partial results, McCain's overall total moved to 371 to Romney's 160 and 128 for Huckabee.

Among Democrats, Clinton had picked up 173 delegates on Tuesday to 149 for Obama. A total of 1,681 delegates were available and it takes 2,025 to win the nomination.

The incomplete results left Clinton at 436 delegates to 352 for Obama.