The three most powerful political parties changed the Washington primary.
Will the people who opposed them be too angry to participate?
That’s a concern of Snohomish County election officials as they prepare to send out 185,000 absentee ballots out on Thursday. Election Day is Sept. 14.
Washington voters for the first time in 70 years must choose a political party and then vote only for candidates from that party.
Election Manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said the change will be jarring, but she expects registered voters will not stop voting. She’s confident that the turnout will match that of past years, between 35 percent and 40 percent, and could even climb as a result of all the attention paid to the new rules.
“At first, there was so much negativity that I was really concerned about turnout,” she said. “More and more as we go out into the public, I find that people are not as angry. They’re more interested in understanding how the ballot works.”
That should be no problem, says Chris Vance, chairman of the state Republican Party. While the ballot system is new for Washington, it’s used in eight other states.
“If people in Montana can figure this out, so can the people of Washington,” he said. “It’s not that hard.”
Snohomish County voters should have little difficulty once the initial shock wears off.
Those receiving absentee ballots will follow three basic steps.
Step 1: Pick your party.
Step 2: Vote for candidates in that party. Each ballot is arranged with Democrats, followed by Republicans, then Libertarians. Headings for each party are marked in colors: Democratic, red; Republican, green; Libertarian, blue.
Step 3: Vote on the nonpartisan races such as county Superior Court judge and local measures. Those issues are on the reverse side of the ballot.
Important note: Skip immediately to Step 3 if you don’t want to choose one of the three major parties. Your votes still count on nonpartisan races and ballot measures.
If you vote in person, follow the same steps on touch-screen electronic machines at your polling place. You will be asked to pick a party, and then only candidates for that party will appear for each race.
To get this information out, county election officials are engaged in an intense outreach campaign that includes putting instructions and details in voter guides. They also are speaking to any audience they can corral.
Though the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties forced the reform, they are spending no money to educate voters.
“It’s likely to go smoothly,” said Paul Berendt, chairman of the state Democratic Party. “If it doesn’t, it’s because the (elections) people didn’t try very hard.”
More change ahead
The new system is the final nail in the coffin of the state’s beloved blanket primary, which allowed voters to select candidates regardless of party.
This cherished independence long gnawed on the minds of party leaders. They sued in 2000, arguing that the system violated the parties’ rights to have members pick each party’s candidates.
They won, and after intense negotiations on potential reforms, Gov. Gary Locke signed a law in April establishing the primary in use this fall.
However, the political parties are not done causing upheaval in the electoral process. In their pursuit to know who is in their camp and who is not, expect a fight to compel people to register to vote by party. That information could then be used by the parties to home in on specific voters.
For now, that’s in the future.
Vance, speaking on the day that the new primary became law, said, “It satisfies our core concern that there is no more crossover voter. There will be not be a blanket primary again.”
Meanwhile, the Washington State Grange is pushing a measure on the Nov. 2 ballot that its leaders say would restore the spirit of the blanket primary. Initiative 872 creates a “Top Two” primary that would let voters again choose who they want, regardless of party. Only the top two vote-getters would advance to a runoff in a general election.
Leaders hope to convert anger stirred up by the new system into support for their measure.
“This primary will alienate a whole group of voters who are independent,” Grange spokesman David Burr said. “There’s no sweat off their backs to throw their absentee ballots in the trash.”
Retired high school teacher Bruce Burns of Everett might be one. He is seething that he must align with a party to participate fully .
“This is a violation of my rights,” he said. “Democrats cried and whined how the U.S. Supreme Court screwed them in Florida, then they see no problem with the Supreme Court screwing the state of Washington with this change.”
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