Oregon Public Broadcasting

Posted at 03/19/2008 6:44:13 AM in Top Court Approves

Re: Top Court Approves "Top-Two"

The top-two primary was promoted by elected officials because of the perceived independence of voters in Washington. As a former election official in the state I would here people say, "I vote for the person, not the party". But I don't see any evidence of that because 3rd party or independent candidates were rarely elected in Washington. In that state, democrats tend to behave as democrats and republicans tend to behave as republicans, and independents always lose elections. Historically, voters have not been required to register by party affilaion, and voters there are not used to identifying as a member of a party, so they just don't understand the nomination process for partisan elections. The top-two primary ignores this basic concept that the primary is held to nominate the member of the party to represent it for the general election. It is my opinion the parties have a right to have only members of there party vote for their candidates in the primary. But the only fair way to do that is to require voters to register by party. Unfortunately, Washington elected officials are taking a populist view to avoid the risk of voter backlash. In my opinion, voters don't know any better and are uninformed of the basic concepts of partisan elections.