The state supreme court of Washington has turned down an appeal against the state’s new “top two” runoff system.1
In turn, this proposal (now cleared) is a replacement of the state’s former “blanket primary” that was (along with California’s) invalidated some years ago by the federal supreme court.
A blanket primary ensures that each officially recognized party has its leading candidate appear in the general election, but permits voters to choose a candidate of one party in one office and another in another office. The parties did not like that, and sued (successfully) to stop it.
The new “Louisiana-style” system effectively eliminates party primaries altogether. The top two candidates from the first round, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the runoff. As Benjamin Lukoff puts it (in the linked item):
could the Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians — who banded together to sink the blanket primary and unsuccessfully challenge the new system — decide that at least under IRV2 their candidates are certain to appear on the November ballot? After all, “top two” will likely result in Republicans being absent from the fall ballot in Seattle, Democrats likewise in Wenatchee, and Libertarians, Greens, and the rest of them nowhere at all.
Indeed, and that is why this top-two system is a very bad ‘reform.’ It is, in fact, a democratic retrogression.
________
“On April 16, the Washington Secretary of State’s office announced the details of how ballots will look in this year’s “top-two†primary and general elections. Under each candidate’s name will appear “Prefers (example) Partyâ€. The candidate is free to choose any party name if it is 16 letters or fewer, and is not obscene. The 16-letter limit means that no one can choose “Socialist Workers†or “Democratic Republicanâ€. The Secretary of State says the candidate must figure out an abbreviation if the party of “preference†is longer than 16 letters (a blank space between two words counts, just as though it were a separate letter) . Since Socialist Workers Party candidates have regularly appeared on the ballot with the full party name in many Washington state elections ever since 1948, it seems somewhat likely that the party could win a lawsuit over the 16-character limit. The limit wouldn’t be so strict, except that space is needed for the word “prefersâ€.”
Source: Ballot Access News, 17 April.
Seed planted by MSS — 18 April 2008 @ 18:57