In Our View: Move Primary to Boost Voice

With a population that ranks 13th among U.S. states — and is greater than the combined total of nearby Oregon, Idaho, and Montana — Washington should be a big player in the presidential nominating process. Instead, the state is an afterthought for candidates, easily ignored and inconsequential to those who are running for president.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the state’s top elections official, would like to change that, but she will require some help from the Legislature and from the major political parties. For the third consecutive legislative session, Wyman is seeking support for a law to move the state’s primary from the deep election forest that is May to the clearing of early March.

The need for such a change was evident during last year’s election cycle. By the time the May 24 primary rolled around, the Republican race was down to one candidate — Donald Trump. John Kasich and Ted Cruz withdrew days before the Washington primary, but still appeared on the ballot, as did Ben Carson. Trump won the Republican race with 75 percent of the statewide vote and 76 percent in Clark County.

The fact that the Republican nomination had been decided by the time Washington voters got a chance to weigh-in was disappointing. But what happened on the Democratic side was egregious.

While Republicans apportioned the state’s delegates to the national convention according to the results of the primary, Democrats decided their delegate count based upon caucuses that took place in March. The timing of that might have been preferable to the May primary, but caucuses are a foolish way for delegates to be determined. In the primary, about 750,000 voters cast ballots for a Democratic candidate — roughly three times the number who attended caucuses, even though those primary votes counted for naught.

Whether or not the parties pay attention to the primary is out of Wyman’s purview, but she is hopeful. “I think there’s going to be more motivation by both parties to be engaged,” she recently told The Columbian’s Editorial Board. “Certainly, we can’t tell the parties how to choose their nominees, but we can give them a tool that will give them good participation.”

Meanwhile, Wyman’s quest to move the date of the primary is one step toward providing Washington voters with some relevance in the nominating process. And the time to pursue the matter is now. “We really want to do this in 2017, when it is fresh in everybody’s mind,” said Wyman, who in November was elected to a second term as secretary of state.

Lawmakers would be wise to pay attention. Along the way, they also would be wise to address another problem facing the state’s primary. Because Washington has a top-two primary for elected office other than the presidency, voters do not register based upon party affiliation. But the presidential primaries this year required voters to mark a party preference in order to participate, an act that inherently suppresses voter turnout. The parties prefer that such a declaration be required, because it provides them with the names of potential supporters. But increasing participation rather than dividing voters along partisan lines should be the goal — both for state officials and the parties.

So, yes, Wyman is working to make Washington’s presidential primary more accessible and more effective for voters. Now she just needs the political parties and the Legislature to get on board.