On March 5, the Washington state legislature gave final approval to HB 1860, which sets out procedures by which major parties can continue to elect Precinct Committee Officers. The old procedure had been held unconstitutional last year, on Freedom of Association grounds, because the old system provided that all voters at the general election participate in such internal party elections.
The new procedure puts these elections on the primary ballot. The primary ballot explains that anyone who votes in these elections is, by his or her vote, affiliating with the major party. Any voter who votes for both a Democratic candidate for Precinct Committee Officer, and a Republican candidate for Precinct Committee Officer, has cast an invalid vote that is not counted.
The bill is flawed because it assumes that the Democratic and Republican Parties will forever be qualified parties. It names those two particular parties. A better-drafted bill would not have done that. The last time a party other than the Democratic and Republican Parties met the state’s new definition of qualified party (one that polled at least 5% for President), was in 1996, when the Reform Party met that definition.
Since when is it public business that public funds are used to have a PRIVATE clubby group choose its clubby party officials ???
Separation of parties and state NOW ???!!!
i.e. Blast ALL robot party hack stuff OUT of the State constitutions and laws.
i.e. cause the voters and media to do some minimal research about each candidate.
The Sun will continue to rise.
The Democratic and Republican parties are the only parties that sued on this issue. The bill should be regarded as a temporary fix. It originally was going to add the offices to the presidential primary, where voters are required to publicly affiliate with a party in order to vote. Eliminating the presidential primary, meant another solution was needed.
During the blanket primary era, PCOs were elected at the the general election. Under the Pick-a-Party primary they were moved to the primary, where they remained under the Top 2 Open Primary reform, where their presence has been enjoined.
After each candidate’s name a statement “I affirm I am a Democrat(Republican).” appears so that a voter who votes for a Democrat affiliates with the party.
The bill also eliminates write-in voting for PCO, as well as eliminating uncontested contests.
The better solution is to change the constitution to go back to special elections to fill vacancies. With all-vote-by-mail ballots, it is not necessary to arrange polling places, so an election only involves sending out ballots.