The Washington legislature failed to pass SB 5745 by the deadline, so it is dead. It would have cleaned up the technical errors in the “top-two” initiative that passed last year. The initiative, I-872, limits the general election ballot (for congress, state office and partisan county office) to only the two top vote-getters from the primary. I-872 passed despite opposition from the state’s minor parties. But I-872 is internally contradictory, due to major drafting errors.

The Washington legislature is empowered to alter the language of initiatives, and SB 5745 would have eliminated the errors in the initiative. Because the bill died, Washington faces the future with an election law that is impossibly muddled. The Secretary of State will now draft interim rules, which may or may not provide for minor party ballot access in the November election. There are partisan county elections in November 2005 in some counties of Washington state, so this will be addressed fairly soon.