In Our View: Voters, Get Registered

As you might have noticed, election season is in full swing. Presidential candidates from both parties have been dominating the news cycles for months, and voters in many states already have weighed in on their preferences for the nominations.

Yet while the process might seem interminable, it is in some regards just getting started in Washington — and local voters have much homework ahead of them.

To start with, the Democratic Party in the state already has apportioned its delegates to the party’s national convention; Bernie Sanders won a majority of those delegates through the party’s caucuses on March 26. Republicans, meanwhile, will allocate delegates through the state’s presidential primary on May 24, and those delegates will be beholden to the results of the primary — for the first ballot, at least.

Which brings us to the initial homework assignment for voters. April 25 is the deadline to register by mail or online (https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/myvote/olvr.html) for the May primary. The deadline for in-person registration at the Clark County Elections Office (1408 Franklin St., Vancouver) is May 16. Because Washington does not have partisan registration, to cast a ballot in the presidential primary voters must declare that they will participate in only one party’s election.

While a presidential election inevitably garners the lion’s share of the attention, this year’s primary is merely a prelude for voters. In the statewide primary in August and the general election in November, Washington voters will be tasked with filling all nine of the statewide executive positions. As the Yakima Herald-Republic wrote editorially: “Most states don’t elect offices like these, but most states’ constitutions aren’t rooted in the heat of the late 19th-century populist fervor, as Washington’s is.”

Gov. Jay Inslee is running for a second term, and voters also will weigh in on their preferences for attorney general, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, lieutenant governor, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of public lands, and superintendent of public instruction. Throw in re-election bids by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, and races for all Southwest Washington legislative seats — along with various county councilors and city officials — and the ballot promises to be stuffed. So to speak.

The nine statewide executive positions promise to be the most interesting, with five incumbents choosing to not seek re-election. Brad Owen is stepping down as lieutenant governor, and longtime state Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, is among the candidates seeking that office. State Treasurer Jim McIntire, Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark, and schools Superintendent Randy Dorn also are stepping down, as is state Auditor Troy Kelly, who is currently on trial in a federal case related to a previous real-estate services business. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, notably the only Republican holding statewide office on the entire West Coast, will be trying to retain her position.

All of that, as mentioned, will require some homework on the part of voters. With so many offices on the ballot, the result could be vast changes in how Washington is governed — from city halls to county offices to the Statehouse. As Teddy Roosevelt is credited with saying, “A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

But the first task is to make sure that eligible voters are registered. The presidential campaigns have been active for months, but election season is just now gearing up in Washington.