Many of you will see that the spot on your ballot where you vote for precinct committee officer has one or more Democratic candidates but no Republican candidates.
In fact, at least 11 Shoreline precincts have no Republicans running for PCO.
While this area usually votes heavily Democratic, Republicans usually get at least 35 percent of the vote.
Surely, every precinct has at least one person who wants to influence the direction of Republican politics.
You can fill the void by filing as a registered write-in candidate. The filing fee is only $1.
Thoughts on voting for judges
When we vote for legislators or other policy makers, we vote for the people we think are most likely to promote the policies we want.
But when we vote for judges the standard should be whether the judicial candidate understands the law, will listen to both sides of an issue and thoughtfully interpret laws.
Look for ratings from groups like the state and county bar associations and the Municipal League of Seattle.
Voters wanted the top-two primary; let’s make it work
Four years ago, Washington voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative to establish a top-two primary. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has approved the top-two system, voters have a chance to show that they’re ready to use it.
All those voters who have complained about limiting themselves to one party now get to vote without picking one party’s ballot.
Exercise the system you voted for. Complete your ballot.
Looking at the new ballot
The ballot that you’ll see at your polling place or that came in your mailbox looks different than any ballot you have ever seen. That’s because when the U.S. Supreme Court approved the top-two system, it called claims that the system would confuse voters “mere speculation,” but left open the possibility of another suit after this year’s elections.
That’s why the ballot has an explanation that each candidates’ “party preference” does not indicate that the party endorses or approves of the candidate. That same explanation appears at least three times in the voters’ pamphlet.
Each candidate is listed as either preferring a particular political party or having “no party preference.” That’s because Washington’s political parties had convinced two lower federal courts that the voter-approved top-two system would force the parties to associate with candidates they don’t approve of. With that in mind, state elections officials designed the ballot and the filing system so that candidates would not designate themselves as Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens, Socialists or Independents, but rather to list their party preferences. Hence, some Republicans listed their party preferences as “GOP” or “Grand Old Party” rather than Republican, and some listed “no party preference” or listed their preference as “No New Taxes Party.”
As far as I know, no one filed as preferring the Birthday Party.
Evan Smith is Enterprise forum editor. Send comments to him at entopinion@heraldnet.com
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