Primary Elections Won’t Be Changed

Washington’s much-criticized presidential primary has escaped the Legislature’s ax - at least this year - and lawmakers have decided to take a longer look at a plan to move the regular state primary to earlier in the summer.

The House has no plans to act on the Senate-passed bill to abolish the presidential primary, believing the action to be premature, the chairman of the House Government Administration Committee said Thursday. The presidential primary has been used in this state for just two elections.

Likewise, a popular plan to move the state primary forward by a month, from September to August, needs more study and won’t be approved this year, said Rep. Dave Schmidt, R-Bothell.

Earlier this session, the Senate voted by a bipartisan 38-10 to end the state’s experiment with the presidential primary.

Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane, chairman of the Senate panel that oversees all election legislation, called it “a discredited system” that costs taxpayers $3 million for an election that is all but meaningless.

Critics point out that:

Voter turnout has never exceeded 25 percent.

The primary undercuts precinct caucuses, the old system of allocating and selecting national convention delegates.

In 1996, Democrats refused to follow the results, Republicans allocated half of their delegates through the primary, and independents’ views were not counted by either party. About 67 percent of the voters requested an unaffiliated ballot, listing all candidates of both major parties.

In both 1992 and 1996, both parties had wrapped up their nominations before Washington voted.

But Secretary of State Ralph Munro urged the House committee this week not to act rashly.

“I’ve been as frustrated as anyone with the resistance by some in the political parties to use the results,” he said. “But I believe this is not the right time to pull the rug out from under this. Let’s wait until we know what the political parties are going to do. If they refuse (to follow the primary results), we still will have plenty of time to consider this.”

The Legislature approved a primary initiative submitted by over 200,000 voters in 1989. Analysts called it a reaction to the low turnout of the old precinct caucus system, coupled with televangelist Pat Robertson’s surprise domination of the GOP caucuses.

The state sent the country’s largest Robertson delegation to the 1988 Republican National Convention, to the chagrin of Munro, who said well-organized forces of both parties can “pack” caucuses and produce extreme results.

Munro says the primary is attracting more candidates and greater voter participation than the old system. About 100,000 people took part in caucuses, compared with the 700,000 who voted in the 1996 primary, he said.

Schmidt said he supports the presidential primary, but said it’s too soon to predict whether the Legislature will allow one in 2000. The parties’ positions and the potential of Congress approving Sen. Slade Gorton’s plan for four regional primaries still are uncertain, he said.

He planned to confer with Gorton in Olympia today.

“There is no pressure to deal with this this year,” Schmidt said in an interview. Barring a last-minute switch in signals, the measure will be allowed to die in committee.

Schmidt also has derailed his own bill, HB1762, backed by 60 co-sponsors, to advance the date of the regular state primary.

The state has one of the nation’s latest primaries, the third Tuesday in September. The short seven-week period between the primary and the November general election has begun to give county election supervisors fits, he said.

Soon, more than half of the voters will use absentee ballots, making it hard to certify primary results in time to get ready for the Voters’ Pamphlet and general election voting, including the mail ballots, Schmidt said.

Last fall, it took nearly a week to determine some of the winners, including Democrat Brad Owen’s narrow primary victory for lieutenant governor. In many counties, the majority of absentee ballots didn’t arrive until one or two days after the election.

Schmidt’s plan, for the second Tuesday in August, is backed by Munro and a big majority in the House. But Schmidt said the House will authorize an interim study of the whole absentee ballot-counting issue and wants to see what that produces before passing such a big change.

The legislation could pass in plenty of time to notify candidates who are running the 1998 primary, including the U.S. Senate, all nine congressional seats and most legislative districts, he said.