Washington voters knew what they were doing in 2004 when they created the “top-two” primary: They were taking control of their own election system.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that choice by a 7-2 margin, the state political parties should respect it by working with election officials to help craft reasonable rules for operating the new system. By working within the new framework rather than continuing to fight it, they’ll be honoring the independence valued so deeply by a majority of Washingtonians.
The top two primary was intended to replace the blanket primary that voters created in 1935, but lost in 2003 after a similar system in California was declared unconstitutional. Washington voters, by and large, were angry about losing their blanket primary, which allowed them to vote for a Democrat in one race and a Republican in another. It encouraged candidates to appeal to independent voters, often by favoring practical positions over sharply ideological ones. As a result, our state spawned a long line of constructive leaders from both parties who were willing to reach across party lines and forge compromise.
In other words, they got things done.
The top-two system, like the blanket primary, allows voters to cross party lines on the ballot. To pass constitutional muster, though, it is designed not to be a party nominating process, but a filtering process: the top two vote-getters in each race advance to the general election, regardless of party.
Two candidates from the same party could face each other in the general, but that would be rare — and not necessarily a bad thing. The most liberal areas of Seattle, for example, might be best served by choosing between two Democrats. The same could be true for Republicans in other parts of the state.
The parties challenged the top-two system and won in the lower courts, but the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against them. The top-two primary will be in place this August, and rules for it need to be in place by the start of candidate filing on June 2. (Can parties note their “favored” candidate on the ballot? In the voters’ pamphlet? If only two candidates file for a partisan office, do they appear on the primary ballot or just on the general?) Those rules need to be crafted in a way that prevents a successful court challenge by the parties. The best way to start is to involve them, as Secretary of State Sam Reed says he will.
The parties want control over the primary system, but the nation’s highest court has affirmed that it belongs to the people. In the coming weeks, election officials must take care to adopt rules that will keep it that way.
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