Evan Smith on Politics: Time to move primary-election date
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Evan Smith on Politics:
The Aug. 6 primary election drew only about 30 percent of registered King County voters. That number is enhanced by a more than 35 percent turnout in the City of Seattle, with its hotly contested race for mayor.
The Aug. 6 primary election drew only about 30 percent of registered King County voters. That number is enhanced by a more than 35 percent turnout in the City of Seattle, with its hotly contested race for mayor.
Turnout was even lower in some nearby areas. Lynnwood had a four-way contest for mayor, a four-way race for one city council position and three-way contests for each of two council positions. Yet the primary drew less than 25 percent of registered voters.
August is a terrible time for an election, even a mail election.
Until about a decade ago, Washington had a wonderful system: Candidates filed in July, the primary was in September, and the general election was in November. However, counting primary ballots didn’t get done soon enough to print general-election ballots in time to get those general-election ballots to overseas voters in time to meet federal requirements for military and overseas voters.
So Washington has moved its primary to early August, when voters’ minds are on anything but voting.
Some states allow primaries for local elections a few weeks before the general election. Washington, however, has decided to follow the same schedule for local elections in odd-numbered years that we have for federal and state elections.
Former Secretary of State Sam Reed suggested a June primary, before people disperse for the summer.
In odd-numbered years, that would run into the rule that prohibits state officials from campaign fundraising during the legislative session. However, legislative and statewide elections are all in even-numbered years, except when there is a special election to fill a vacancy.
A June primary would have one other advantage. It could have a partisan ballot for a presidential primary.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com
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3 comments:
No Evan, it wasn't a wonderful system. Military voters like me would be overlooked based upon the system. It took Federal intervention to get the state to recognize that the system was flawed and potentially biased against serving (particularly OCONUS) military members. Provided the state doesn't "loose" our ballots, military members and their families now have sufficient time to receive their ballots, research the candidates and issues and then get their ballot back in time.
"when voters’ minds are on anything but voting." That just about sums it up for the indolent citizens stateside. But bravo to our troops overseas, who, while putting their lives on the line for this country, are nevertheless (perhaps all the more) concerned with making their vote count. Oh there's a problem all right, but it isn't with election day.
It never should have moved. When it was in September, candidates would comb the neighborhoods in the summer. I still like the idea of any candidate receiving more than two-thirds of the votes in the primary should be automatically elected. In youngsters' baseball, it's called the "mercy rule"!
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