U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court Upholds Washington Primary System
Posted Mar 18, 2008, 10:12 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to Washington state’s primary system, SCOTUSblog reports.
The system allows the two candidates who get the most votes to face each other in the general election, even if they are from the same party, the Associated Press reports. In the primary, candidates are allowed to indicate their party preference, even if the party finds the candidate repugnant. The party preferences of the top two vote-getters are also listed on the general election ballot.
The Washington state Republican Party was the first to file a suit challenging the system. The action contended the system violated the party’s associational rights by usurping its right to nominate its own candidates and by forcing it to associate with candidates it does not endorse.
In a 7-2 decision (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog), the Supreme Court said the statute was not invalid on its face.
The court in an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas said arguments against the system “rest on factual assumptions about voter confusion that can be evaluated only in the context of an as-applied challenge.”
“Respondents’ assertion that voters will misinterpret the party preference designation is sheer speculation,” the court said. “We are satisfied that there are a variety of ways in which the state could implement [the primary system] that would eliminate any real threat of voter confusion.”
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Posted by Kim in Spokane - 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
It seems to me that most of us here in Washington would prefer to return to our open primaries. The political parties disliked that system because of the voters’ ability to nominate a fringe candidate that was sure to lose in the general election. In my lifetime, it’s happened twice that I can recall. In one gubernatorial primary, Republican voters voted for a very controversial Democrat, denying the nomination to a moderate who would have most likely won the general election. A generation later, the Democrats voted for a nutjob Republican who had no hope of winning the general election.
I recognize the substance of the parties’ claims, but I still believe that my right as an individual voter to vote for whom I choose should trump the right of the parties to select their own candidates. While I vote for Democrats most often, in every election in which I’ve voted, I’ve also voted for at least one Republican because I believed he or she was the best candidate. Because of the new system, in a primary election last year I had to chose between voting a Demoncratic ballot to chose the Democratic senator and a Republican ballot to select a Republican sheriff. I have been denied my right to vote for the person I believe is most qualified.
I apologize for the length of this post, and I hope it doesn’t sound like a rant. Those of us in the West that are accustomed to open primaries are generally hoppin’ mad about the while stinkin’ deal, and while the parties have won this battle, they have lost the good will of many Washingtonians.