On March 5, the Washington House passed HB 1860, which moves elections for Precinct Committee Officers from the general election to the presidential primary. Precinct Committee Officers are officers of the political parties.
The bill makes it likely, but not certain, that Washington state will continue to hold presidential primaries. The bill says a presidential primary will be held if “both” major parties tell the state no later than September 1 that they will choose all their delegates to national conventions via the presidential primary. If either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party insists on choosing some delegates by caucus, then the presidential primary is canceled for all parties.
It is interesting that the bill assumes that there will only be two qualified political parties into the indefinite future in Washington state. This assumption is because the bill refers to “both” the qualified parties. A qualified party in Washington state currently is one that polled at least 5% of the vote for President at the last presidential election.
Washington’s Secretary of State Sam Reed had proposed that the presidential primaries be eliminated, but the bills to do that did not advance.