Washington State Grange

August 22, 2006

Washington State Grange vows to continue fight for accessible primaries

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today affirmed a lower court ruling invalidating the Washington State Grange’s Initiative 872, which was overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2004.

“Now is the time for the voters of this state to unite to take control of elections back from the political parties,” said State Grange President Terry Hunt. “The Grange will go forward with the top-two initiative, and follow the court’s direction by removing any and all party designations on the ballot.”

Judge Raymond C. Fisher wrote the opinion, with Judges Dorothy W. Nelson and Pamela Ann Rymer concurring. The California-based judges noted that “we are mindful that Initiative 872 reflects the political will of a majority of Washington voters,” but then invalidated the Washington voters’ enactment of the initiative anyway, agreeing with the political parties’ lawyers that the initiative was too much of a “burden” on the political parties.

The judges also concluded that this “burden” could not be separated out of the initiative’s top-two system because “It is not reasonable to believe that Washington voters would have passed Initiative 872 if they knew it would result in nonpartisan primaries for all statewide offices,” according to Fisher’s opinion.

“The irony in all of this is that the political parties’ militant style of control over the elections process outweighs their intelligence,” said Washington State Grange Legislative Director Toni McKinley. “While they pride themselves on their so-called ‘win,’ they have only widened the gap between those who represent the people and those who represent them. Voters in this state don’t vote for parties, they vote for people and that isn’t going to change no matter what the courts say.”

There is language in the opinion that indicates a similar top-two qualifying primary would stand up constitutionally if a candidate’s party preference was not placed on the ballot.

“The court ruled that the party preference included in I-872 could not be severed because Washington voters may not have voted for it if they knew that would be the final result,” said Hunt. “It will be interesting to see if that is indeed the case.