Primary Fails At The Ballot Box Low Turnout, Inconclusive Results Prompts Calls For Caucuses’ Return

Light turnout, a confusing process and questionable results for Washington’s presidential primary are prompting calls for change.

“It’s confusing. It’s a waste of money,” said Cathy Allen, a political consultant in Seattle. “The process is making people as angry as the politics.”

The process yielded results vague enough that President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole can each find something positive in the outcome.

But the light turnout - as low as one voter in five statewide and one voter in 11 in Spokane County - means the election isn’t a good indicator of how Washington state will vote in November, said Allen of Campaign Connections.

“The most sincere voters went to the polls Tuesday,” she said. “In November, we’ll set a record for voters in Washington state - more people who have never voted and more people who haven’t voted in years.”

Pam Behring, Spokane president of the League of Women Voters, agreed that the $3 million the state spent on the primary was “not money well spent.”

The League was one of the champions of the statewide initiative that prompted the state to hold presidential primaries. Now, the organization needs to review the system to see whether reforms can make it worth keeping, Behring said.

Brett Bader, a campaign consultant in Bellevue, said Washington needs to decide what’s important before it tries another reform.

“The problem with reform is, people like the reform before they think through what it might do,” said Bader, of The Madison Group. “I’m usually a defender of the process, but this was just a mess.”

If Washington state wants to spur citizen involvement in presidential politics and build “grass-roots campaigns,” it should go back to caucuses, Bader said.

Caucuses aren’t popular with the general public, but they do attract activists.

If the state wants to draw political advertising dollars and attract presidential hopefuls to airport press conferences and rallies, it should hold a primary, he said. But it should schedule the election earlier and require voters to register by party.

Tuesday’s primary showed that Washington voters clearly do not want to be readily identified by party, several analysts said.

Some 367,000 voters cast “unaffiliated” ballots which had the names of all eight Republican candidates and both Democrats. That was more than the total ballots cast for Republicans and Democrats combined.

“There is a strong spirit of independence in Washington state,” Behring said.

Bader suggested that voters were more interested in having a ballot with the most choices than exercising independence.

For whatever reason the unaffiliated ballots were popular, they provided only a partial preview of the match up between Clinton and Dole.

Clinton collected 52 percent of the unaffiliated votes statewide, and about 45 percent in Spokane County.

His figures dropped even lower in Eastern Washington’s rural counties that lean conservative and Republican. But state Democratic officials were hailing his numbers as a strong victory.

That prompted Lance Henderson, state campaign manager for Dole, to note that 48 percent of the state’s voters rejected the incumbent president.

Dole, however, received only 27 percent of the votes on the unaffiliated ballots statewide, and 32 percent in Spokane County. So similar logic could suggest that 73 percent of the state rejected the GOP standard bearer.

“You could read it either way,” said Bader, who usually works for conservative candidates. “But Dole’s not the incumbent. What this really means is the presidential campaign in Washington is a competitive horse race.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Unaffiliated ballot results President Clinton: Statewide - 52 percent Spokane County - 45 percent Sen. Bob Dole: Statewide - 27 percent Spokane County - 32 percent