Locke vetoes 'Top 2' primary, creates separate party voting

By David Ammons
The Associated Press

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Locke rejected a "Top 2" primary system similar to Louisiana's primary, in which all candidates appear on the ballot and the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Instead, he replaced Washington's popular wide-open blanket primary with a system like that used in Montana, where candidates appear on separate primary ballots, but voters choose which ballot to cast.

Locke said he opted to give voters more choices in the November election. The Top 2 system would have advanced only two candidates, likely freezing out minor parties and raising the prospect of all-Democrat or all-Republican contests in the fall.

"Voters want choices in the general election," Locke said. "The Louisiana system would take those choices away. Small parties are part of the democratic fabric of our state. Their participation should not be limited to the primary."

Locke restated his anger, disappointment and frustration with the state's major political parties for their successful legal challenge to the blanket primary, in which all candidates appeared on one ballot and the top finisher from each party advanced to the general election.

Legal challenges and a ballot initiative to overturn Locke's decision are expected, especially from the Washington Grange, the original sponsor of the blanket primary in the 1930s.

"We'll go ahead and go with the initiative and probably challenge the constitutionality of the rest of the bill" that Locke signed, said Don Whiting, the Grange's election expert, who predicted widespread public unhappiness with the decision.

"They won't fully comprehend how it changes the election until they actually have to go through a new system," Whiting said. "It's hard to know why the governor would want to take us down this road."

The demise of the state's blanket primary was triggered by a legal challenge to a similar system in California. In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the blanket primary violated parties' rights of free association by letting nonmembers choose their nominees.

A series of court challenges temporarily preserved Washington's blanket primary until last month, when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
 
Locke's unusual choice stems from some equally unusual action in the Legislature this year. After the Senate approved the Louisiana-style option, the House amended the bill so the state would default to the Montana variant if the Top 2 system is invalidated by the courts.

When the Senate reluctantly agreed, Locke was left with a bill structured so he could veto out the section authorizing the Top 2 system, a strategy advocated by many dissenting lawmakers.

His veto was a victory for the state's political parties, but only a partial one because the parties hoped for a system that registered voters by party or at least generated a list of which ballot voters chose.

A voter's "choice of parties is totally confidential, there is no party registration," Locke said.

Had the Top 2 system prevailed, the parties had promised legal challenges and threatened to hold nominating conventions to chose candidates themselves.

Locke's decision eliminates one of the most popular elements of the blanket primary for voters: the ability to chose a Republican in one primary race, a Democrat in another, and a minor-party candidate in a third.

"Killing the Top 2 primary takes away the public's right to vote for the person, not the party, and threatens our proud history of independence," said Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state's chief election officer.

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