On April 6, the Washington State Senate passed SB 5119 by a vote of 34-15. It cancels the May 2012 presidential primary. Most Republican Senators voted against the bill. Also on April 6, a similar bill, HB 1324, passed the Washington House State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee.
If the legislature approves this bill, that will leave unresolved the question of whether elections for party office can continue to be held. A U.S. District Court had struck down the existing law, requiring that Precinct Committee Officers of the qualified major parties be elected by all the voters in November. The leading alternate plan to repair the system had been to move these elections to the presidential primary. A bill to put these elections on the presidential primary ballot, HB 1860, had passed the House on March 5. A Senate committee then considered the bill but has not advanced it.
Traditionally, the PCO had been elected at the general election. They were moved to the primary election when the Pick-A-Party primary was implemented in 2004 after Gary Locke’s ill-advised veto of the Top 2 Open Primary reform.
In 2009, Secretary of State Sam Reed’s proposal for recognizing political parties, would have moved the PCO elections back to the general election, where voters would have been required to fill out a form like they do to vote in the presidential primary.
The fundamental problem is Washington’s constitutional provisions for filling vacancies. (1) Such a detailed procedure should not be in the constitution; (2) There should not be a role for political parties in the filling of vacancies, when candidates are not elected by party.
If the constitution were modified to simply state that the legislature shall provide procedures for filling of vacancies, then the legislature could provide special elections, or some other procedure.
One more reason to remove ALL language regarding party hacks from State constitutions.
The party hacks can have paper mail ballots financed at their own expense for choosing clubby party hack officers.
What is the New Age cost of a scanner ballot ???
I think we may have killed this one. With 6 parties opposed, plus PCO’s from the Ds and Rs, and someone from the Sec. of State’s office testifying against, I think the bill never moved out of committee.