OT Another Way Political Parties Cheat The Public




Thousands of primary ballots may be invalid

05:28 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 12, 2006

By ROBERT MAK / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - The Washington state primary is just one week away and
already some voters have returned their ballots. The problem is, they
aren't following instructions and thousands of votes may not count.

In this primary your votes in partisan races won't count unless you
say whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.

KING

Many voters just don't want to choose a party.

Depending on which county you're in, you may have to pick a particular
ballot, check a box or connect the lines Whatever the system, a
surprising number of voters just aren't doing that. A lot of voters
prefer to vote across parties, for the best candidate.

For decades Washington state voters could pick and choose candidates
from any party. But a couple years ago the state's so-called blanket
primary was thrown out in court. The political parties fought and won
for a system that requires voters in the primary to pick a party and
stick with candidates only from that party.

Secretary of State Sam Reed asked counties across the state to do a
small survey of ballots and see how many voters are failing to declare
a party. The results were surprising:

In Snohomish County 22 percent of ballots are invalid, they can't be
counted.

In Kitsap county it?s 14 percent of ballots.

In Chelan county, 12 percent.

In Pierce county, 10 percent

In King County, just 5 percent.

"Any of these numbers are too high,? said Reed. ?When you consider a
governor's race was decided by a fraction of a percent, the fact that
these votes aren't going to be counted, I think is something that is
alarming."

Snohomish county auditor Bob Terwilliger said:? Frankly, we still have
a lot of protest vote going on out there, in terms of the loss of our
blanket primary, and voters remember still very clearly they they used
to get a ballot, that said they could vote for whatever party
candidate they wanted to, and so I think a lot of them are doing
that."

He said it's possible voters are confused, because it's the first time
his county is voting all by mail.

But, Terwilliger says, the instructions are pretty clear. If you don't
pick a party your votes in judicial races and local measures will
still count but your votes for senate and other partisan races will be
thrown out.

The Snohomish County auditor said he thinks there may be some voters
who aren't declaring a party because they don't want any record of
whether they're a Democrat or Republican.

He says by law there is no record. The ballot is separated from the
envelope and counties are not supposed to keep track of which party
you choose.

Secretary of State Reed, who opposed this party primary system, said
he plans to go back to the Legislature next year and ask lawmakers to
remove the requirement, that voters have to declare a party for their
votes to count.

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http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_091206WABprimaryEL.345976c.html



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