Bill moving primary to August dies in Senate

OLYMPIA – A bill to move the state’s primary election from September to August died Friday in the Senate, although supporters expressed hope it could be attached to other election reform bills next week.

The primary date bill, the last in an election reform package, passed the House last month, but Republicans in the Senate had promised to lock up their votes against the measure and Democrats, needing two-thirds approval to pass it, chose not to bring it to a vote.

Each house faced a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to pass non-budget-related bills that originated in the opposite chamber.

“At this point, it’s dead,” said Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, the main architect of the election reform package in the Senate.

Kastama said moving the primary is important to ensure overseas and military voters get their ballots in time and so election officials have sufficient time to handle any recounts and prepare for the general election.

Secretary of State Sam Reed expressed hope Friday that when both houses work on reconciling amended bills, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate can find a way to get the primary language into one of the other election bills.

“I’m hopeful,” he said. “We have work to do.”

But Kastama said he would not add the primary date to any of the other election bills, because it would jeopardize their final passage.

“It turns it into a supermajority bill and if I have to come to an agreement with (the Republican) caucus, they’re going to require a passport, they’re going to require a birth certificate for (voter) registration and that is something that we cannot go to,” he said.

The other election reform bills waiting for concurrence only require a simple majority vote, but the bill changing the primary date requires a two-thirds vote because it amends a 2004 “Top 2” primary initiative that voters passed.

The Republicans’ refusal to negotiate on the primary bill was payback for action hours earlier in the House. Republican attempts to change two other election reform bills to require all state voters to reregister and to prove their citizenship were rejected in the lower chamber.