Washington state has a top-two system. In top-two systems, no minor party candidate ever qualifies for the November ballot unless there is only one major party candidate in the primary, in that same race.
In November 2016, ten Libertarians appeared on the ballot for state legislature, because they all filed in districts with only one major party candidate. For 2018, there will be only four such legislative races. The four lucky Libertarians who will automatically place second in the August primary, and thus appear on the November ballot, are: State Senate 36 Bryan Simonson; Representative 22(2) Allan Acosta; Representative 36(1) Sydney Wissel; and Representative 36(2) Matt Dubin.
No other Washington minor parties had any candidates on the November 2016 ballot (except for President), and no others will have one on the November 2018 ballot.
World Libertarian Party Home Page
http://www.usparliament.org/lp.php
NO primaries.
PR and AppV
You may have forgotten that Washington has write-in voting. There are an additional 14 legislative seats for which there is only a single on-ballot candidate. It is possible that potential Libertarian candidates will be taking advantage of the zero filing fee for declared write-in candidates.
In 2016, there were also general election legislative candidates from the following minor parties:
Independent Dem Party (9 candidates)
Independent GOP Party (4)
Non-Partisan Party (1)
Independent Party (1)
There were also two candidates who stated no party preference.
For 2018, there are the following minor party candidates (for legislature)
Independent (13), Libertarian (4), Independent To (1), People Over (1), Centrist (1), Ind. Republican (1), and People Over (1) parties; as well as (11) who have stated no party preference.
Traditionally, fewer Democrats file in the off year (Washington elects its governor in the presidential year). I suspect this may be because they can benefit from the party campaign for the higher offices. Because of the close legislative balance, and overall hopes for the Democrats, they have been able to recruit candidates in most areas.
Jim, those labels you listed aren’t actual organizations, so to me they aren’t “parties”. Organizations have officers, their own bank accounts, and their own rules.
Half the states let independent candidates choose any short partisan label that does not mimic the name of a qualified party. So there is a huge variety of partisan labels in the nation, in any particular election, and some references to treat every different partisan label as though it were a “political party”, but I think most people would agree that they aren’t real parties. Examples of such labels are the ones you listed above.
Washington only recognizes parties that had presidential candidates, but such parties qualify by petitioning for the presidential ballot in a way that is indistinguishable from an independent candidacy. Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Socialist & Libertarian, Green, and Constitution parties are effectively mere partisan labels.
Washington does distinguish (on the ballot) between candidates that say they prefer a party such as Libertarian or Independent parties, and those who state they have no party preference.
If the Libertarian Party were actually organized, they could qualify general election candidates in another 14 districts as write-in candidates. In the past, declared write-in candidates had to pay the filing fee. But this year a declaration of write-in candidacy is free, so long as it is made prior to ballots being mailed out.
Remember, Washington has had a congressional candidate who won a primary as a write-in candidate, and went on to be elected in November.
The Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Socialist & Liberation, Green, and Constitution Parties, are all bona fide political parties. They all have officers, bylaws, bank accounts. They are real organizations. It doesn’t matter what Washington state law says. In the real world they are parties.
Standard rigged gerrymander districts in WA State —
WA USA Reps
WA state sens
WA state reps