Primary Proposal Changes Are Solid

With its tradition of public involvement, Washington state is surprisingly out of sync in an area at the heart of citizen participation.

Washingtonians hold their primary elections later in the year than anywhere else in the nation except New York, leaving little time to explore issues and examine qualifications.

Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro, whose office oversees elections, will ask the Legislature to correct that situation by moving the primary, now held the third week in September, to the third week in August.

He also calls for candidates to file for office during the first week of June rather than the last week of July as at present.

Moving the opening stages of the formal election cycle ahead a month is a commendable idea for reasons of its own but in light of recent voting trends it is almost compulsory.

By the thousands, Washington voters have discovered the absentee ballot. Once a vehicle intended mainly for travelers, military personnel and shut-ins, the mail-in ballot has become an option of convenience for busy citizens.

In some counties, more than half of the registered voters regularly vote by mail, not because they can’t get to the polling place but because they prefer not to.

They receive ballots two or three weeks ahead of time and merely have to see that they’re postmarked by midnight of election day.

That’s another way Washington differs. Most states insist that the completed ballot be received, not just mailed, by election day.

With growing numbers of mail-in ballots in the mix, the days spent waiting for them to arrive become a more common factor in delaying outcomes, especially in close races.

After a primary election, that can give one candidate a head start on general election campaigning while the opponent is still sweating out a too-close-to-call primary-election race. By the time enough absentees come in to know a winner, the campaign disadvantage may be too great to overcome.

State election officials even dread the day when a sticky race involves not only a recount but also legal challenges. That might not leave time to hold a general election at all for that race.

Munro’s plan not only addresses these situations but also forestalls chances of a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Defense which requires uniformed service members serving away from home to have 45 days to receive and return their ballots, a time frame Washington can’t now meet. Defense hasn’t sued yet in Washington but it has done so in other states and won.

Absentees aside, sound decisions at the polls rely on sufficient information during the campaign, and Munro’s proposal would allow that to happen.