On February 13, the Washington state House unanimously passed HB 1860, which preserves elections for Precinct Committee Officer (a party office, not a public office). The bill says these elections will be held at the time of the August primary, every two years.
To get around the problem that Washington state only prints one version of a primary ballot, and all voters use that ballot, the bill provides that in the section for voting for Precinct Committee Officer, the top of that part of the ballot will say, “In order to vote for Precinct Committee Officer, a partisan office, you must affirm that you are a Democrat or a Republican and may vote only for one candidate from the party you select. This preference is private and will not be matched to your name or shared.”
Also, under the name of each candidate for Precinct Committee Officer will appear, “By voting for this candidate, I affirm that I am a Democrat”, if the candidate is seeking seat on a Democratic Party committee. If the candidate is running to be a member of a Republican Party committee, under the name of that candidate will be “By voting for this candidate, I affirm that I am a Republican.” The bill says that if a voter votes for both a Republican and a Democrat, his or her vote for Precinct Committee Officer will be invalid.
The bill is peculiar because it includes the names of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The bill’s authors thereby are writing into the law their assumption that for all time into the future, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party will be ballot-qualified parties, and no other party will be. This is not realistic. The definition of a qualified party in Washington is a group that polled at least 5% for President at the last presidential election. But in 1996, the Reform Party polled over 5% for President in Washington state, and it is easy to imagine that a party, other than the Democratic and Republican Parties, will repeat that showing in a future election.
