Readers, a reminder that today is the last day of the August 2023 Top Two Election, the elimination round of our problematic, two-part first-past-the-post general election system. Ballots must be postmarked or returned by a drop box by 8 PM tonight, or they won’t count. Be sure yours is in, and then remind friends and family to vote, too. Chances are, many of them haven’t. Don’t assume – ask!
The purpose of the Top Two election, which the state misleadingly calls a primary, is to winnow fields of candidates with three or more contenders down to two.
Suppose a city council contest attracts ten people who all want to serve. State law says that only two candidates can appear on the autumn general election ballot, so eight candidates must be eliminated from consideration. That’s the function of the Top Two election. If a candidate doesn’t nab one of the top two spots in their race, their campaign comes to an end, and they don’t go on to the runoff.
In most races where not more than two candidates file, that race does not appear on the Top Two ballot at all since there is no one to be eliminated.
In a true primary, voters would select nominees to represent each major political party in the general election. The ensuing general election ballot could easily have more than two choices. For example, the ballot might have a Democratic nominee, Republican nominee, Libertarian nominee, Green nominee, and an independent candidate or two. But Washington uses a system that limits voter choice in general elections. The general is restricted to two named candidates — the top two vote getting candidates from the qualifying round, regardless of party.
Although there can be two victorious candidates in each contest in the Top Two election, voters in Washington are presently required to vote for just one candidate per contest. Voting for more than one candidate will result in a spoiled ballot. However, in Seattle, this requirement will soon be lifted thanks to the pending implementation of ranked choice voting. Voters in the Emerald City approved a measure to bring ranked choice voting to Top Two elections for city positions last year, an idea that NPI supported and endorsed.
Participation so far in this election has been pretty low, which is typical for Top Two summertime elections and all elections in odd numbered years.
As of yesterday evening statewide turnout stood at 18.57%. 717,913 ballots had been returned to elections officials, with 690,337 accepted and 7,231 challenged. 3,866,640 voters are eligible to participate in this Top Two election. Yesterday was the best day for returned ballots so far, with over 100,000 turned in.
The team at NPI urges you to be a voter and get your ballot in.
If you would like to use a drop box to return your ballot, which we strongly recommend — Louis DeJoy’s sabotage of the United States Postal Service has made USPS less reliable — here is a list of locations for major counties:
- King County
- Snohomish County
- Pierce County
- Whatcom County
- Skagit County
- Thurston County
- Spokane County
- Clark County
Need help voting? NPI doesn’t endorse or rate candidates for office, but the Progressive Voter’s Guide is available if you want to learn more about who’s on your ballot. You can also use the official voter’s pamphlet published by your county. And for judicial races, there’s VotingForJudges.org.
Starting tonight, after 8 PM, we will be offering live coverage of election results here on the Cascadia Advocate. Most counties will only report one batch of results tonight, and not update again till tomorrow afternoon.
We will be watching a number of races closely, particularly the Seattle City Council races, the King County Veterans levy, the Spokane mayoral race, and county-level races in King, Snohomish, and Whatcom counties, the only charter counties that fill positions in odd-numbered years. (Thanks to a successful charter amendment conceived here at NPI and prime sponsored by King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, King County will soon be moving its elections for Executive, Assessor, Elections Director, and County Council to even-numbered years.)