Top-two voter turnout

The top-two primary, also known as the no-minor-parties primary or the stubborn-refusal-to-pick-a-party primary, violates a federal court order.

Or so say the top two (D’s and R’s) party lawyers, according to David Postman at the Seattle Times. That is, it violates a federal court order from 2005. It’s unclear why it took the lawyers this long to figure that out, or why the (lower) federal district court order isn’t preempted by the (higher) U.S. Supreme Court order holding the top-two primary legally valid if not very smart.

The top two party lawyers threaten that the litigation isn’t over. Meanwhile, the state is moving forward with the top-two primary as planned (Joe Turner at The News Tribune posts the press release). If this keeps up, only the top two voters will actually turn out.

If ever a state wanted to use lawyers and bureaucracy and political party posturing to deter a populace from participation, this is the way. We hope people are fired up enough over the presidential or gubernatorial or ballot measure contests to vote despite the top-two tangle.