NEWS RELEASE
October 8, 2004
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For immediate release
MINOR PARTIES BENEFIT FROM
I-872, GRANGE DISPELS MYTHS
The Washington State Grange
announced today that the effects of the qualifying (or “top-two”) primary
proposed in Initiative 872 could serve to benefit minor parties in primary
elections for legislative races. This is contrary to arguments made recently by
opponents of the initiative, who have irresponsibly stated that I-872 will shut
out minor parties.
“We’ve done some research on
this issue, and it turns out that the doom and gloom scenarios painted by our
opponents are simply not true,” said Grange President Terry Hunt. “We looked at
legislative elections in 2000 and 2002, and we found that a significant number
of third party candidates would have made it to the general election under a
qualifying primary.”
The Grange’s research
concluded that, in the primary election of 2000, a total of 13 minor party
candidates for the legislature would have advanced to the general election had
the top-two system been in place at that time. In three of those races, the
minor party candidates actually received a higher proportion of the vote than
one or more of the major party candidates in those races. In 2002, four
legislative races would have advanced minor party candidates to the general
election under the qualifying primary.
“These figures assume that
the dynamics of the qualifying primary will be the same as they were under the
blanket primary,” said Grange Elections Specialist Don Whiting. “Because a
qualifying primary is more competitive than a nominating primary, we could even
see more minor party candidates for legislative offices at this ‘grass roots’
level.
“We recognize that candidates’
strategies and the mix of candidates might also have changed if the ‘rules’
governing the primary were different,” explained Whiting, “but the results of
this research do give a general idea of what the effect might be.”
“This just goes to show that
the political parties either have really not thought this issue through, or
they are deliberately putting out false arguments in an attempt to deceive and
confuse the voters,” said Hunt. “The truth is that minor party candidates have
just as good of a chance of succeeding under a qualifying primary as anyone
else.
“We think the voters are
smarter than the opposition apparently does, and we’re grateful to be in a
position to stand up for the rights of the voters in this state,” Hunt
continued. “The Grange believes that the people should decide what kind of
primary election they want, not the political parties. And that’s exactly what
we’re giving them the opportunity to do.”
Attached is a chart listing the legislative races in which minor party candidates would have advanced to the general election in 2000 and 2002.