State’s ‘blanket primary’ was popular but flawed

Published 9:35 pm Saturday, February 23, 2008

For decades, Washington state political parties used caucuses to pick presidential candidates. A “blanket primary” — in which voters could pick a candidate in either party, without having to declare affiliation — was used for state and local elections.

“It worked great and was very popular,” said Nick Handy, Washington Secretary of State director of elections.

In 1988, a presidential primary was established by initiative. But the law left it optional for the parties to use the primary to choose their delegates, Handy said. Every presidential election year since, except for 2004 when the primary was not held at all, the parties have chosen their candidates the same way they did this year.

Parties became more nervous about the prospects of mischievous “crossover” voters bolstering weak candidates in other parties. By some accounts, this happened in the 1996 gubernatorial primary when some Democrats, assured of Gary Locke’s victory in their party, voted for Ellen Craswell, an evangelical Christian, as the Republican front-runner. She lost the general election in a landslide.

Numerous court cases have upheld parties’ rights to nominate candidates any way they see fit, Handy said.

The blanket primary for state and local elections was declared unconstitutional before the 2004 elections.

— Bill Sheets, Herald Writer