Ballots have voters grumbling

Washington voters grumbled, and occasionally fumbled, with their first partisan primary in decades before narrowing the choices Tuesday for their general election in seven weeks.

They chose Attorney General Christine Gregoire to run against state Sen. Dino Rossi for Washington’s open governor’s seat.

At press time, they were leaning toward former Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn to run against King County Councilman Rob McKenna for attorney general.

They chose state Rep. Cathy McMorris of Colville to run against Spokane businessman Don Barbieri for Eastern Washington’s open congressional seat.

And as expected, they chose Republican Rep. George Nethercutt of Spokane to run against Democratic incumbent Patty Murray for the U.S. Senate.

And in Spokane County, they chose state Rep. Brad Benson for the Republican slot in the 6th District state Senate race, County Treasurer Linda Wolverton to run against legislator-turned- lobbyist Todd Mielke for one county commission seat and building industry lobbyist Mark Richard and businessman Bill Burke for the other commission seat.

But the first choice each voter had to make was which ballot to mark or punch. Because of federal court rulings that voided the 1934 blanket primary system, a new state law restricted primary voters to a single party’s candidate.

Myrna Cooper of Spokane was not happy about that restriction after casting her ballot at the Sixth Avenue Events Club Tuesday evening. Cooper, 63, said she’s lived in Washington all her life and voted since she was 21.

“I never voted a straight party ticket. I vote for the person most of the time,” she said. “I voted this time only because it’s my right.”

Marc Hankin, an Eastern Washington University professor and stockbroker, called the new system “a power grab by the parties.”

“I’m not a locked in, die-hard party member,” said Hankin. “This just limits my choices.”

The sentiments were echoed across Eastern Washington.

At Shadle Park Presbyterian Church, north Spokane voters Ruth Kissinger and Don Osborn also would have liked to cross party lines, but they didn’t have too much trouble with the new get-four, choose-one system.

“I spent about 20 minutes and looked it over real carefully,” she said. “It wasn’t too bad.”

Osborn, who described himself as an independent voter, said, “I don’t know after 70 years why they had to change it. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

The why is tied up in the U.S. Constitution. Federal courts have ruled that parties have a right to limit participation in their primaries to people who have some affiliation with their party. In Washington, where voters do not register by party, that meant requiring them to pick a Republican, Democratic or Libertarian ballot with just that party’s candidates. They could also opt for a nonpartisan ballot, for judicial races, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction, and any ballot measure.

Those races also showed up on the back of the partisan ballots.

“I don’t like it,” said Valley firefighter M. Hill after he discarded three ballots and put one ballot in the scanner at Trinity Lutheran Church. “Not only is it confusing, but it’s extremely wasteful.”

Most voters knew exactly what to do with the ballots, said precinct inspector Pat Conley at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Spokane’s South Hill. But poll workers did have to help a few voters who were confused.

“There has been a share who just do it all wrong, who insist on putting three ballots through the scanner,” Conley said. “No matter what you tell them, there are just some people who don’t understand.”

But other voters, particularly those who had lived in other states, found the process relatively easy.

“This is my first time voting in Washington,” said Valley voter Myron Judkins, who had moved recently from Las Vegas, Nev., where he had to register by party. “I’ve never had this sort of freedom to pick, so I don’t have a problem with it.”

The new system didn’t seem to discourage many more voters than normal from participating in the primary, which in comparable years past has drawn about 50 percent of those registered. Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton predicted that when all absentee ballots were received and counted sometime next week, county turnout would be about 43 percent.

Most races were decided early in the evening. Gregoire, the Democrat who served three terms as the state’s top lawyer, easily bested King County Executive Ron Sims, who had called for a complete overhaul of the state’s tax system to head off looming budget problems. But Sims’ reform contained “state income tax,” three words that have often proved fatal in state politics. They shared the Democratic ticket with four other candidates who waged low-profile, low-budget campaigns, including perennial political gadfly Mike The Mover.

Rossi, a GOP legislative leader from Sammamish, had two token opponents.

Much closer was the Democratic primary between Senn and Seattle city prosecutor Mark Sidran. But Senn may have been the unintended beneficiary of some $1.5 million in ads funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The ads criticized her tenure as insurance commissioner, but when the committee that was running them fought an order to reveal the source of the money, Senn may have received voter’s sympathy for the shadowy attack and extra publicity late in the campaign.

In the Senate race, Murray called Nethercutt, rolled over former King County GOP Chairman Reed Davis, and exchanged congratulations over their respective wins.

Democrats were pointing to her much higher vote totals as a good indicator of the Nov. 2 general election. “It looks like our base is very fired up,” said Alex Glass, a Murray campaign spokeswoman.

But Nethercutt and other Republicans were downplaying the differences in those numbers. Democrats, said Nethercutt, had the more competitive primaries, particularly the hotly contested governor’s race.

“We didn’t have many contests on the Republican side,” he said. “I think there will be a huge turnout in the general.”

Several voters said they were eager to go back to picking among the various parties in the general election.

“I prefer not having to pick a party,” said Janet Davis, a director for the Girl Scouts, who said she was excited about voting for several of the candidates running this year.

Accompanying Davis was her daughter Megan, an Eastern Washington University student voting in her first election.

“It’s kind of exciting,” Megan Davis said about casting her first ballot. “I am definitely going to have to do more research about the candidates before the next time.”