Reed hopes 'Top Two' ballots are clear, serious, effective

Washington's "Top Two" primary, the result of Initiative 872 and its recent Supreme Court victory, continues to take shape with the release of the ballot rules by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

PolitickerWA caught up with the Secretary of State yesterday to follow up on the ballot rules. Reed feels the disclaimer, which is to be presented in bold on every partisan ballot, is the key to the legality of the "Top Two" primary.

It reads, "Each candidate for partisan office may state a political party that he or she prefers. A candidate's preference does not imply that the candidate is nominated or endorsed by the party, or that the party approves of or associates with that candidate."

Each polling place will also have a sign posted with the statement, and each absentee ballot will include an inserted notice in the envelope.

"We had to make sure no one thought it was a political party nominating process," Reed insisted.

In addition to the clarification that the new primary will not be a nomination, there is also the important matter of how candidates describe themselves. The rules allow for a candidate to say they prefer a particular party, whose name can contain 16 characters, or have no party preference at all.

Judging by the coverage Reed's plan has received so far, the most intriguing aspect of the new ballot is the 16-character limit, and what is allowed to be included in it.

For starters, the 16-character limit had nothing to do with the fact that "American Heritage" has sixteen letters in it. Rather, Reed said it is the amount of space that some county ballots are able to handle.

"It was strictly a logistical decision," Reed said by phone near Yakima yesterday.

As for what is said within the party preference space, Reed hopes to dissuade shenanigans.

"We are going to strongly encourage candidate to list real party names, to be serious candidates," he said. "I'm going to use the bully pulpit as much as I can to encourage candidates that if you are serious you need to come up with a serious party name or state no party preference."

Still, he knows that free speech is just that, and acknowledges that voters can expect a degree of absurdity on the ballots this summer, profanity notwithstanding.

"We fully expect Mike the Movers and things like that to come up with their own names of parties," Reed said. "We can't do anything about that. There is no law in the state of Washington that defines what a political party is."