Overwhelmingly, Washington voters would prefer a primary election to caucuses
A majority of registered voters across party lines would prefer that Washington become a primary-only state, according to a new Washington Poll. The finding, based on a Feb. 7-18 survey of 300 randomly selected registered voters statewide, comes in the wake of last week's largely anticlimactic presidential primary election, held 10 days after the state's party caucuses.
Secretary of State Sam Reed had predicted a 47 percent turnout, but according to the latest figures the turnout was less than 38 percent, or a total of about 1.25 million voters.
The caucuses determined the allocation of all delegates for Democrats and about half the delegates for Republicans.
The new poll, with a 5.6 percent margin of error, found that only 10 percent of voters would prefer a caucus-only system; 30 percent would prefer to keep both caucuses and primaries; and 52 percent would prefer only primaries.
It also found that 65 percent would prefer to continue to hold a primary. Broken down by party affiliation, the percentages in favor were 62 percent of Democrats, 75 percent of Republicans, and 59 percent of independents.
The Washington Poll is a nonpartisan, academic survey research project sponsored the University of Washington Department of Political Science.
Comments:
Posted Tue, Feb 26, 9:06 a.m. inappropriate
Disenfranchised by major parties: I had not missed voting in an election for over fifteen years, until the major parties and the courts made my primary vote worthless. I threw my absentee ballot in the trash for the last two primaries. Since when do the rights of a political party trump my right as an individual to vote for whomever I wish? Caucuses are a joke; I want to cast a ballot in private without being badgered, and I still want a say in which candidates are listed on that ballot. And I am not about to swear allegiance to either party, preferring to keep them as honest as possible by remaining an independent.
Until we return to an open primary, my personal rights are being violated.
Posted Tue, Feb 26, 11:30 a.m. inappropriate
State dictates to parties?: Washington was always a presidential caucus state until 1989. It was the push to establish a presidential primary that started the chain of events that led to a court ruling our open primary system for all offices unconstitutional and put us in the mess we're in now. Way to go, primary supporters! The parties are private organizations and their members should pick their candidates.