Voters await new era in primaries

With blanket primary gone after 70 years, modified Montana system to be used during Sept. 14 elections

This year's primary elections will have a double purpose for Washington state voters.

Besides clearing up the field for the November general elections, they will serve as stage for the debut of a new primary system.

The blanket primary system, which allowed voters to pick candidates across party lines, has been declared unconstitutional and replaced by a modified Montana system, which requires voters to pick a party's ballot and vote exclusively on its candidates.

Voters in six counties (King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Chelan and Klickitat) will receive single "consolidated" ballots, where the voter has to establish a party preference. The rest of the counties will receive separate ballots for each party.

Members of both parties in Grant County expressed a mixture of concern and optimism about the new system.

Ellen Webb, co-chair of the the Grant County Democratic Party's Get Out The Vote program, said she appreciated the liberty to choose candidates that the blanket primary afforded voters.

On the other hand, she said, the reality is the primary is not the place to make final decisions, but instead a means for parties to elect the representatives that they want to put forward for the general election.

"I understand the people's angst over having their choice taken away," she said, adding that the primary election was never designed to be an election of the best candidate across the entire field.

"The primary election is intended for people to choose the best candidate to represent a party's philosophy in the general election," she said.

The concern over using the modified Montana system, which requires people to pick only one ballot among four (Democrat, Libertarian, Nonpartisan and Republican), is not shared by other states.

In the states of the midwest and the northeast, Webb said, people are used to this system. However, the story in Washington is different.

"People think they are going to be required to vote only Democrat or only Republican all the time," said Tom Dent, chairman of the Grant County Republican Party, who added that crossover voting is only forbidden during the primaries. In the general elections of November, voters can choose whomever they want.

Dent agreed with Webb, saying that in other states this type of primary election that is so new to Washington is not new at all, and that voters in this state will lose their apprehensions once they go through it.

"Is it going to be better? I don't know," Dent said. "It's just going to be different."

Two meetings, unscheduled as of today, are being prepared by the county's Republican Party to answer questions voters might have regarding the new system.

Washington last had a first-year primary 70 years ago, so experienced and new voters alike will have to learn the system. Same goes for absentee voters, who will have to pick a ballot out of the four, discard the rest and mail the one they chose.

Secretary of State Sam Reed has launched a massive media campaign to educate voters on questions such as whether picking a party's ballot makes a voter a member of that party.

It does not, and no record is kept of the voter's choice of ballot.

At the same time, the Web site of the Secretary of State's office emphasizes the need for voters to choose a ballot. If a person who received separate ballots votes on more than one ballot, none of the votes for any partisan candidate will count.

Webb predicted that activists, the parties and the state authorities are going to have to educate everybody across the board.

So far, the attempts at educating the public have been hit-and-miss. Democratic Party Latino Outreach coordinator Anabel Romero-Juarez said the brochure put out by Reed's office had confused plenty of people.

"They were saying 'we saw the donkey and the elephant on it, and we thought it was partisan, so we threw it away,'" Romero-Juarez said. The brochure had the Republican and Democratic logoes on it, along with a Lady Liberty, symbolizing the Libertarian Party.

"It's kind of confusing for those who have not voted before," she said.

Beyond the confusion, both parties want to emphasize the importance of voter participation on Sept. 14.

"What we have been trying to tell people is that it is important to make their vote count," state Sen. Joyce Mulliken, R-Ephrata, said. "We can all adjust to change."

Those who decried the switch from blanket primaries, Mulliken said, would not only get a chance to vote across party lines in November, but an initiative would be on the ballot in November, which would install a Top-Two primary in Washington.

With that system, the overall top two vote-getters from any party would end up in the general election ballot. This, Mulliken said, would make candidates really push to get themselves known. Secondly, it would return to the state a system really similar to the blanket primary, which preserves the voter's independent right to choose.

"Washington state is a very independent-minded state," Mulliken said. "The voters want to protect their independent nature."