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Change State’s Primary Election to Top-Four System


Primary Election voters have all the fun. And a lot of the power.

Those who wait and only mark their ballots for the General Election, rather than participate in the Primary, see only the narrowest selection of candidates, having left to Primary voters the task of winnowing down the field to the Top Two candidates.

Washington State’s Primary Elections, since 2008, have used the Top-Two system to determine who moves on to the General Election for all partisan Local, State and Federal offices except the President. Only three other states, California, Louisiana and Nebraska, use some form of the Top-Two Primary.

Louisiana went further and runs their Primary as a General Election in November with a Top-Two runoff if a candidate does not reached a majority, 50%+1.

Most States use either Closed Primaries, requiring voters to register a Party preference and limiting voting to only those candidates of the declared Party, or Open Primaries, where voters don’t declare a Party but are still limited to voting for one Party’s candidates.

Since the 1930s, Washington State voters, who had long prided themselves on their independence, had used a Blanket Primary to select candidates for the General Election. The Blanket Primary allowed them to choose, for example, a Democrat in one race, a Republican in another, and a Third-Party candidate in yet another. But the Blanket Primary was declared unconstitutional in 2003 by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But this type of voting would be the ideal voting system. The Voters select their candidates, not the Parties.

To replace it Washington State voters in 2004 passed Initiative 872, which approved the switch to the Top-Two primary. Court challenges delayed its implementation until 2008.

But while the Top-Two system preserves the ability of voters to vote across Party lines for individual candidates in the Primary, it has resulted in some peculiarities.

Washington State’s Primary, as the name suggests, moves the Top-Two candidates to the General Election, regardless of Party affiliation. Last November, for example, that meant that after the Primary Election the race for Snohomish County Executive offered a choice of two Democrats: Dave Somers and John Lovick. Likewise, other races, particularly for legislative seats, have offered a General Election choice between two Republicans or two Democrats. California also has seen this happening more and more.

There are other drawbacks to Top-Two.

Top-Two also is a disadvantage for those candidates from Third Parties or independents, again limiting choice for the General Election when there’s increased interest recently in an alternative to the two Major Parties.

But an alternative is suggested by a nonprofit organization called FairVote that advocates for Election and other democratic reforms. Among the reforms it suggests are Election of the President by popular vote rather than the Electoral College, Ranked-Choice Voting and Opening Primary Elections to 17-year-olds.

Fun fact: FairVote’s Board Chairman is Krist Novoselic, the politically minded former bass guitarist for groundbreaking grunge band Nirvana.

FairVote’s proposed reform, called Top-Four, would keep the basics of Washington’s Primary while expanding the field for the General Election from two candidates to four. Any candidate receiving at least 20% of the Primary vote and finishing among the top four candidates would make the ballot in November.

Top-Four, FairVote says on its website, would increase the likelihood of at least one Democrat and one Republican qualifying for the General Election, and would also improve the chances for Third-Party candidates and independents. And it could limit instances where one Party benefits and wins both General Election spots if a large field of candidates from the other party splits its supporters’ votes.

Washington State’s voters, seeking to preserve the split-ticket voting they enjoyed under the Blanket Primary, approved I-872’s Top-Two Primary with nearly 60% of the vote. The Top Four primary could keep that independence while enhancing voters’ choices in the General Election.

CLICK HERE for more information about FairVote.











NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker


     

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This post first appeared on The Independent View, please read the originial post: here

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Change State’s Primary Election to Top-Four System

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