For the first time in what most people would consider a lifetime — 70 years— voters in Washington state will soon be experiencing a new primary system that changes how they vote Sept. 14.
Instead of being able to cross-vote, voters may vote only for candidates of one particular party running for partisan offices.
To educate voters about what they can expect, the King County Department of Records and Elections staff, which administers elections, have been conducting their own campaign— to inform voters about what they call “easy” changes to the ballot.
“We believe it is as easy as one, two, three,” said Bill Huennekens, superintendent of elections. “If voters follow instructions, it will be easy.”
The most important change voters will make, Huennekens said, is to make a party selection on the top of the ballot. For voters who do not select a particular party (Democratic, Republican, or Libertarian), they can still vote for nonpartisan races and issues or ballot measures.
“If they don’t make a party preference, then their partisan votes won’t count,” Huennekens said. “But nonpartisan ones will.”
To determine the design of the ballot, King County officials conducted several studies. In addition to mailing out 1,600 sample voters to a randomly selected group, focus groups were also organized.
“The results were positive in the fact that people were able to successfully complete the ballot,” Huennekens said.
The result was a consolidated ballot, after considering several options, including three separate ballots that Huennekens said people felt was a waste of paper.
The final ballot asks voters to select a party preference in the top left corner. There is then a column for the three parties, separated by color. Democrat is red, Republican is green and Libertarian is blue. Measures will then be found on the reverse side of the ballot, to be considered by all voters.
With more than one million registered voters in King County, Huennekens said that the Department of Records and Elections has received a fair number of questions from voters.
“We are making a concerted effort to get the word out about this,” Huennekens said. “We are being proactive so people understand.”
There are no changes to the General Election system, Huennekens said.
The primary voting system changed following a decision by Gov. Gary Locke to veto one of two primary laws adopted by the Washington State Legislature, leaving a Montana Primary system.
Locke signed this law, and despite a lawsuit by the Washington State Grange, and backed by state Legislators, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Locke.
Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, joined state Sens. Tim Sheldon and Joyce Mulliken and state Rep. Fred Jarrett in the lawsuit filed by the Washington State Grange April 22 in state Supreme Court.
In essence, what Fairley said is left after the veto is a Montana primary, instead of the qualifying primary that was passed by the 2004 Legislature. The qualifying primary bill the legislators hoped to retain was the “Top Two” plan, which allows the top two candidates who receive the most votes to advance to the November general-election ballot. Under this system, it is possible to send two people from the same political party to the general election.
A last hope to reclaim the blanket primary, Fairley said, is Initiative 872, which, if passed in November, will allow voters to vote for any candidate, regardless of party. This, however, it is still too late for the Sept. 14 primary, Fairley said.
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