Secretary of State

The top two lawyers threaten that the litigation isn’t over; the state is moving forward with the top-two primary as planned. If this keeps up, only the top two voters will actually turn out.

The deadline for turning in signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot is July 3, and three big campaigns are gearing up to take their “oughta be a law” ideas directly to the people.

There is much speculation about down-ballot voting and how it will wash. But what is the effect on down-ballot races when the presidential race itself isn't at the top?

Jason Osgood, the only democrat to earn accolades from the right-wing bloggers at Sound Politics, is making an unusual run to the right of Republican incumbent Secretary of State Sam Reed.

The Seattle Times' David Postman is reporting that Jason Osgood, a 40 year old computer programmer and prominent blogger from Seattle, will file as a Democrat for Secretary of State. Osgood, who has never run for office before, gained some press last year when he helped stop King County from spending a third of a million dollars on an ill-conceived ballot tracking program.

Postman goes further into Osgood's opposition to ballot tracking, Secretary of State Sam Reed's standing in the election reform crowd in his article, found here.

Postman has the latest instructions from the Secretary of State about the logistics of the top-two primary. It's not going to be pretty. I've said here that the structure of the top-two primary will push candidates and the electorate towards extremes, and now is the appropriate time to point out that Washingtonians aren't as independent as they like to think.