Vote and get your ballot counted! More details.
Still haven’t voted and turned in your ballot? Git ‘er done. Don’t let procrastination and perplexity keep you from using the most powerful tool you have to shape your local and state government—your vote. As of last Thursday in Spokane County only 15% of eligible voters had turned in their ballots, five percentage points less than in 2020 at the same point (the last primary election held in a presidential election year). The first vote counts aren’t done until Tuesday evening, so we have no idea what segment of the voting public has taken the time to vote so far. Rumor has it that right wing churches are coaching voters and gathering voted ballots to turn in. Don’t let that sort of technically legal “ballot harvesting” determine your choices on the November ballot. Vote!
I have met, talked with and observed many of the Democratic and some of the Republican candidates on the Primary ballot—and I agree with the recommendations and rationale presented in the Progressive Voters Guide. Many other blurbs and guides, candidate websites, county Voters’ Guides, newspaper articles, and recordings of debates are available at your fingertips—if you have hours to comb through the material. (For example, listen here, to hear the candidates to replace McMorris Rodgers.) Both the Public Disclosure Commission (for state and local candidates and PACs) and the Federal Election Commission (for federal races and PACs) have a wealth of valuable information—but it takes some time, and a lot of clicking, to figure out how to navigate to the data you want to see.
The race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has drawn eleven listed contestants, six “Prefers Republican Party” and five “Prefers Democratic Party.” For this race read the entry in the Progressive Voters Guide. The “Prefers Republican Party” candidates run from bad to worse. Democrats Carmela Conroy and Dr. Bernadine Bank are both endorsed by the Spokane County Democratic Party and both retain substantial campaign coffers to take into the General Election. (For links to the financial wherewithal of the eleven candidates check out this guide. Money isn’t everything, but it is nearly impossible to win without financial backing.)
There is a little comfort, I suppose, in noting that many of the contests on your ballot have only two contenders, which means, in our slightly bizarre “Top two” primary system, that both will appear on the November General Election ballot. Even so, do your homework and cast your votes in these contests, too. Your vote counts. Candidates and campaigns use primary vote results as an indicator—so do campaign donors, PACs, and political parties. The Primary, even when ballot turn-in is unimpressive, is a better poll than nearly all of the campaigns can afford to run.
Last Friday I wrote a very long post (partly for my own edification) on why we have the primary voting system we use in Washington State. You deserve a badge for diligence if you read to the end of that post and learned something you thought was interesting. In part I wrote it to expand answers to some of the questions that Jim Camden posed and answered in the article I’ve pasted below. I maintain a paid digital subscription to the Spokesman. I recommend it. I read it nearly every morning and view it as essential to keeping up with the local goings on. But I do not take the Spokesman as a single source. Mr. Camden’s article is shorter than mine, and well worth the time to read. Articles like this are one of the reasons I subscribe.
Vote! We should have some early results by Wednesday.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
Spin Control: Questions about the ballot you received in the mail? We have some answers
Sun., July 21, 2024
By Jim Camden For The Spokesman-Review
For some 4.8 million Washington voters, the most confusing ballot of the past four years probably arrived in the mail last week.
If not, it will likely arrive this week.
It’s the state primary ballot, which actually comes once a year about this time, but tends to generate the most questions in years divisible by four.
The first question is almost always, “Didn’t I just cast a primary ballot?”
The answer is “Yes, but.” The qualifier is that the primary ballot cast in March was a presidential primary ballot for the candidates seeking the nomination for either the Democratic or Republican presidential nomination. This primary is to narrow down the choices for other partisan races that will be on the November ballot.
So why does the state have two primaries?
That’s a bit more complicated, and involves a fairly long history that we’ll condense here. The presidential primary is relatively new – approved in the 1990s, but the rules have changed several times since – and was instituted with the hope that Washington voters could play a bigger role in choosing the presidential nominee. (It hasn’t worked all that well, but that’s a different issue.)
To be counted by the parties, the presidential primary has certain rules that require a voter to state that he or she is, at least when marking the ballot, a member of the party of the candidate being chosen. If a voter says he or she is a Democrat and marks the ballot for a Republican candidate, or vice versa, the ballot isn’t counted. If a voter fails to say he or she is a member of one of those parties, and votes for any candidate, the ballot isn’t counted.
The state primary is older, dating to the 1930s, and it was an effort to give voters more control – and the political parties less control – of selecting the candidates in the general election. For many years, the Democrat with the most votes and the Republican with the most votes in any given race advanced to the general election, as did certain minor party candidates or independents who got a certain percentage of the primary vote. But a voter wasn’t limited in his or her choices, and could pick a Republican for senator, a Democrat for governor, an independent for lieutenant governor and even a Communist for state school superintendent. (Just kidding. The School Superintendent office is nonpartisan.)
But it, too, has changed in recent decades because of legal challenges by the parties. A state primary voter can still vote for any candidate for any office – one per race, of course – but instead of the Democrat and Republican with the highest vote counts advancing, the two candidates with the most votes advance. That’s why it’s often called the “top two primary.”
Does that mean the general election could be between two Democrats or two Republicans?
Yes.
Do the parties like that better?
Generally not. It is, however, a good lesson in being careful what you ask for, particularly if you’re asking the courts.
Why does the ballot say the candidates ‘prefer’ a particular party?
In Washington, voters don’t register by party and candidates don’t run with the approval of the party they claim. They may or may not be active members of the party they list as a preference.
Why haven’t I heard of some of these parties, like the ‘Nonsense Busters Party’ or the ‘Standup America Party’ or the ‘No Labels Party’?
Sometimes candidates just make up a name, often to signify something about their political philosophy. Others may just have too much time on their hands. There’s also probably no difference between the “GOP Party” and the “Republican Party” or the “Trump Republican Party.”
If I marked the presidential primary ballot as a Democrat or a Republican to vote in March, do I have to vote only for that party’s candidates in the state primary?
No. You can vote for any candidate you want in the state primary. You are also not required to vote for the same candidate in the general election that you vote for in the state primary. Just get the primary ballot postmarked or in a drop box by Aug. 6.