If you marked a “party preference” on your primary ballot, your choice really was safe.
State Senate Government Operations Committee Chairwoman Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, now tells me that the only time anyone can tell which party I choose is in the presidential primary.
When Washington last had a presidential primary seven years ago, we marked our party preference on the outside of the envelope. This helped elections officials sort ballots, but it made our choices evident to anyone who saw our envelopes.
Apparently, some counties compiled that information, and others didn’t. The Legislature should make sure that next year’s presidential primary follows the same private-choice rules that we have for the August primary.
Snohomish County scrupulously follows the “private choice” rules that govern primaries in Washington and eight other states.
Attempts to adopt a party-verification system, in which the voter’s party choice is public record, have died in the Legislature.
Still the political parties have succeeded in keeping the party-preference box even though State law now says that your vote counts as long as you vote on only one party’s ballot whether or not you check the party-preference box.
Why, then, do we still have the party-preference box?
Apparently the party organizations wanted the party-preference box to make us feel committed to a party, but it just makes voters mad.
If either party wants our loyalty it should get enough candidates to make its primary meaningful. This year, there was no reason to pick a Republican ballot in Snohomish County and a reason to pick a Democratic ballot in only one Council district.
Now, it’s time to change our primary ballot. Let’s make one of these changes to the ballot:
(1) Eliminate the party-preference box, and add instructions that you may vote on either party’s ballot but not on both and that you may vote on non-partisan candidates and measures whether you vote on either party’s ballot or neither.
(2) Keep the party-preference box with two additional choices: “Non-Partisan, not voting for partisan offices” and “Non-Partisan, but casting votes on one party’s ballot.” Then, add the instruction that if you choose not to mark the party-preference box, your vote will still count as long as an you vote on only one party’s ballot.
All of this will be moot if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the top-two primary is constitutional.
Election calls come too late
“Hello, I’m ______ and I’d appreciate your vote for _____,” said the recorded telephone call last week. It came the day after I’d completed my mail-in ballot.
That was Friday. The messages were still coming Monday.
This makes me ask whether any last-minute campaigning has value in an age of voting by mail.
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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