The following editorial appeared in the Kitsap Sun on Friday.

As bad as it is in concept, the Pick-a-Party primary election is even worse in practice.

In Tuesday’s election, an estimated 10 percent of voters in Kitsap County and elsewhere in the state invalidated their own votes by failing to draw a quarter-inch line in the small “Party Preference” box on their ballots. Apart from that graphically insignificant detail, most of them did everything right, dutifully – and probably grudgingly – voting for all Republicans or all Democrats in the “red” and “blue” partisan ballot areas. But without that pencil line, their votes didn’t count.

Yes, of course, it’s a no-brainer to determine which party they preferred. A child could look at one of those invalidated ballots and tell whether the voter’s preference was for the red or blue section.

But apparently our legislators cannot. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have made that needless little pencil line a requirement for valid voting.

But all this is frosting on a half-baked cake – the so-called party nominating primary election that was forced onto the state’s voters by the major political parties by a lawsuit and validated by the courts. Before that, the state’s voters had it their way, with an open blanket primary where they could vote for candidates who best reflected their values, regardless of party.

Secretary of State Sam Reed said that during those blissful ballot years, Washington’s turnout was the highest in the nation, about 40 to 50 percent of all registered voters in most primary elections. He estimates in this election, it will probably be in the mid-30s.

Apart from putting a damper on voter participation, the Pick-a-Party primary also disenfranchised voters in places like Kitsap County, where the only candidates for some offices were from the same party. But in different races, they were from different parties. In practice, that meant that only Republicans re-elected Assessor Jim Avery, and only Democrats put Sheriff Steve Boyer into office for another term.

What’s needed here are some changes in the ballots and in some of the partisan offices.

There have been a lot of suggestions, but some of them come with problems attached. In Tuesday’s election, 25 counties, like Kitsap, used consolidated ballots with Democratic and Republican sections. The remaining 14 used separate ballots for each party. But in the separate-ballot counties, only about 1 percent of voters made Pick-a-Party related errors, as opposed to 10 percent in the consolidated-ballot counties.

So why not switch to separate ballots? The cost. In Kitsap County, going to separate ballots would boost the election cost by an estimated $150,000 to $175,000, according to county Auditor Karen Flynn. That’s a pretty stiff price tag to cover for voters who don’t follow ballot instructions.

A better solution is proposed by Reed. In the coming Legislature, he’ll be asking lawmakers to drop the requirement for specifying party preference on ballots when voters have effectively stated their preference by voting only for one party’s candidates.

Also needed is ending the senseless requirement for party affiliations in offices like county sheriff, treasurer, assessor and others not involved in multimember lawmaking bodies. If that had been done for this election, all registered voters in the county would have been eligible to vote for the county sheriff and assessor.

Political party leadership probably will oppose making that change. But what of individual legislative candidates?

It’s a good issue to ask general election candidates. And – if they support it – to remind them of if they’re elected.