Voters vindicated by new primary’s success

Published 3:47 pm Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Washington voters got just what they asked for out of the first top-two primary: more choices.

The courts, if the political parties continue to challenge the voters’ overwhelming decision to install the top-two primary, should keep it in place. Contrary to what the parties argue, the new system created competitive races where they wouldn’t otherwise exist, infusing energy and enthusiasm into the political process.

Tuesday’s top-two primary marked the return of a long-cherished right to Washington’s independent-minded voters: to vote for their favorite candidate in a primary, regardless of party affiliation. That’s what they did for decades before the state’s blanket primary system was declared an unconstitutional infringement of the parties’ right to nominate their own candidates. In response, voters approved an initiative in 2004 by a 60-40 margin that fundamentally changed the primary from a party nominating procedure to a weeding-out process, with the top two vote-getters in each partisan race advancing to the general election regardless of party preference.

The parties, still miffed at their loss of control over the process, sued and won, and voters were left with the “pick a party” primary that they so widely and loudly reviled. The top-two was finally given the OK by the U.S. Supreme Court this year, allowing it to be used for the first time this month.

It proved a rousing success.

Secretary of State Sam Reed projected a strong voter turnout, perhaps the highest for a primary in a generation. (Mail ballots continue to come in, so total turnout won’t be known for a few days.) And Reed notes that the idea may be catching on elsewhere. Oregon voters will weigh in on their own top-two initiative in November.

In at least six legislative races on this year’s general election ballot — none of them in Snohomish County — voters will choose between two candidates from the same party. In each case, the district is heavily Democratic or heavily Republican, and a two-party race would, in truth, have been no contest. Now those voters will have meaningful choices they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

(It’s also worth noting that in four of these six cases, the primary slate was all-Republican or all-Democrat. Under the pick-a-party system, those races would have been decided without a fall campaign.)

In the vast majority of partisan races this fall, a Democrat and a Republican will be represented. In the few where two candidates from the same party will square off, the result is that a real debate can take place, one that reflects the values of local voters. And throughout Washington, primary voters enjoyed the freedom to pick their favorite candidates, not just their favorite party.

It’s working — just the way Washington voters wanted it to.