The Washington Secretary of State, Sam Reed, has written a bill redefining “major party” and “minor party”. That bill, SB 5681, has been introduced by nine State Senators. It changes the definition of “major party” from a group that polled 5% for any statewide race, to a group that polled 1% for president in the last presidential election.
That change is necessary because parties in Washington state no longer have nominees, other than presidential nominees. Without this change, there would be no qualified major parties in the state after the U.S. Senate election in 2010.
The bill also changes the definition of “minor party” from any group, to any group that submits a petition of 100 signatures. Washington state law says that candidates should appear on ballots with a statement of which party they “prefer”. Under existing law, they can prefer any group, even an imaginary one. Under the bill, candidates will only be able to “prefer” a major party, or a group that has submitted a petition of 100 names.
Does this mean the presidential candidate would have to poll 1% in WA state, rather than 1% nationwide?
The bill would increase the support needed by the 2nd place candidate to qualify for the general election to 2% (from 1%). This is probably intended to avoid the need to count incidental write-in votes in cases where there are no declared write-in candidates.
The bill would move the election of precinct committee officers (of major parties) to the general election in November.
So, would a Presidential (slate of electors) candidate need only 100 signatures to get on the ballot?
No, the presidential part of the election law is totally separate and the petition for president would continue to be 1,000 signatures unless the candidate is the nominee of a major party.
Richard,
I’m trying to understand this.
This bill will define a “Major Party” as any group that collects 100 signatures OR gets 1% in the Presidential election.
But a Presidential candidate needs 1000 signatures OR be the nominee of a “major party”.
So, could a group become a “major party” (with 100 signatures) and then nominate a Presidential candidate?
In Washington state, “minor party” is not a ballot-qualified party. The only kind of party that is ballot-qualified is a “major party”. The current law requires a group to poll 5% for a statewide office in the last election to be a “major party”, but it could equally be called just a “party”. The only advantage to turning 100 sigs is that that label can be printed as a “preference.”
#5 Under Washington’s election laws, the only office for which candidates are nominated by political parties are president/vice president.
Other (partisan) offices are elected using a Top 2 primary and general election. All candidates appear on the primary ballot, and may indicate a preference for a political party. This is an expression by the candidate, and does not indicate endorsement or support by a political party. The two candidates who receive the most votes, regardless of their party preference, are placed on the general election ballot with their party preference included.
In 2008, candidates were permitted to indicate their party preference in a very general sense (some candidates said they preferred the “Democratic”, “Democrat”, “Republican”, or “GOP” or other parties. One candidate said they preferred the “SalmonYoga” party. This was largely due to the lateness of the Supreme Court decision which permitted the Top 2 primary to be held for the first time.
The proposed bill would more formally define a political party for which a candidate may express a preference. The contact information of each political party would appear in the voter’s pamphlet sent to each voter (along with the ballot, since Washington voters may vote by mail, and in most counties must vote by mail).
Washington does not have registration by party, and even when they had the pick-a-party primary, a voter’s choice of party was secret. Primary ballots contained the candidates of all parties, and the voter would mark on the ballot which primary he was voting in.
Major political parties (those that received 1% of the vote in the previous presidential election) are placed on the presidential preference primary. Political parties are free to ignore the results of the primary In 2008, the Democratic party did so. Major political parties can then place the nominee chose by the national convention on the general election ballot. In addition, precinct officers are elected by the voters. Currently, these elections are held in conjunction with the primary, but under the proposed bill would be moved to the general election.
Presidential nominations of minor parties and independent candidates are made by convention(s). The candidates must secure 1000 signatures of attendees of the convention(s). A party may hold multiple conventions throughout the state.
To be recognized, a minor party must secure 100 signatures. This recognition is not persistent, so unless a minor party nominates a presidential candidate who receives 1% of the vote, it must requalify by petition at the beginning of each even-numbered election year.
So, basically “minor party” status is meaningless for Presidential elections