On January 11, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, ruled that Washington state’s top-two system does not violate the associational rights of political parties. The decision is Washington State Republican Party et al v Washington State Grange, 2:05-cv-927. See here for the 24-page opinion. The judge canceled the trial that had been set for January 18.
The opinion also holds that the state’s method of electing party officers in the top-two primary is unconstitutional. Now, the legislature will need to change the procedure for those elections. It is possible the legislature will simply change the law to abolish public elections for party officers.
Last year, Judge Coughenour had ruled that Washington state’s top-two system does not violate the U.S. Supreme Court’s ballot access precedents. He made that ruling before much evidence had been introduced on that point. The plaintiffs will now be able to appeal that ruling, as well as the recent ruling, to the 9th circuit, and they will do so.
Judge Coughenour acknowledged that the evidence on freedom of association does show that many Washington state voters are confused about whether a party label on the ballot indicates that the party approves of the candidate. But he said the standard for judgment must be whether “reasonable, well-informed” voters are confused, and that the evidence about “unreasonable, uninformed voters” is irrelevant.
