Two California journalists, Dan Morain of the Sacramento Bee and Pete Golis of the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, have opined that it is “shameful” for anyone to try and correct the existing Title of California’s Prop. 14, the “top-two open primary.”
The bill that passed Proposition 14, in February 2009, dictated that the title should be “Elections. Primaries. Greater Participation in Elections.” A lawsuit was filed to change that title. The Election Code says the title of ballot measures should be neutral.
“Greater Participation in Elections” is puffery and bears no relation to the truth. California has six ballot-qualified parties, but Proposition 14 says only two candidates may run in the summer and fall season. Obviously, with only two candidates in the last six months of the election season, four (or possibly five) parties will be squeezed out. Proposition 14 even disallows write-ins. It also makes the barriers for a party to remain ballot-qualified considerably more difficult, and would eliminate the Peace & Freedom Party and seriously threaten the Libertarian Party. Finally, when similar systems were implemented in two other states, Louisiana and Washington, primary turnout dropped.
But when a lawsuit was filed to change the Title, and the Defendant (the Legislature) agreed to change the title, the Sacramento Bee described this as “talks to spell the demise of an open primary measure”, something that is “an especially underhanded play”. Dan Morain, the author of this article, then quoted supporters of Proposition 14 as saying the legislature’s action was “frankly embarassing”, and quoted the attorney for Proposition 14 as saying “I must say I have never seen a more cynical or shameful attempted abuse of power.”
The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat picked up that lead. Pete Golis headlined his story, “State lawmakers’ Latest Shame”. He writes, “As politics slips into the ooze…the politicians we elect decide whether government will represent the public’s best interest.” The paper also ran this editorial, echoing the same idea, although the editorial is somewhat more nuanced.
Neither of these articles questions the legitimacy of lawsuits that were filed over the wording of Proposition 8 in 2008, or lawsuits over the wording of the statewide ballot measures in May 2009.
P.R. and A.V. = NO primaries are needed.
Turnout in Washington State in 2008 decreased relative to 2004 only if one counts the large number of ballots (12%) which were not voted for governor.
That many blank ballots ordinarily only happens in places like Australia where it is illegal not to vote.
Among those who picked the Libertarian Party, 15% did not express a preference for a candidate, despite the fact that this was the only Libertarian primary ever held in the Washington, and there was a contest for the gubernatorial nomination.
In addition, 2004 had a contested race for the Democratic nomination involving King County Executive Ron Sims and then-Attorney General Christine Gregoire.
Comparing turnout by the counties in the Seattle Area and the rest of the State:
King: 2000-2004 +22.8%; 2004-2008 -22.6%
Pierce: 2000-2004 +8.6%; 2004-2008 -6.7%
Snohomish: 2000-2004 +19.8%; 2004-2008 -0.8%
Kitsap: 2000-2004 +5.7%; 2004-2008 +0.7%
Rest of State: 2000-2004 +5.5%; 2004-2008 +14.6%
Conclusion: turnout in the 2004 primary was driven by the presence of Ron Sims on the ballot, particularly in the Seattle area. Turnout in 2008 dropped in the Seattle area and that slightly offset the almost 15% increase in the rest of the State.
And the turnout for 2004 includes the 12.0% of ballots that did not express a gubernatorial preference, compared to 0.9% in 2008. If one compares votes cast for governor, there was a 10.7% increase from 2004 to 2008.
Proposition 14 says nothing about the date of the primary. How many California candidates actually campaign during the summer?
Proposition 14 does not disallow write-in votes.
The Kazee article in the Winter 1983 issue of Publius compared the general election in 1972, with the first primary in 1979. His focus was on the effect of the open primary on party politics, and the general election in 1972 was the first election that year in which a Republican and Democrat appeared on the ballot.
It is not clear which election Kazee used for 1975. He claims that Edwards was unopposed, and that turnout was only 17%. But the number of votes cast in the 1975 open primary was comparable to the 1971-2 and 1979 elections. Since Edwards received 62% of the vote, he may have been the only name on the general election ballot. It may have been later that the practice of not even holding the election was instituted. Or perhaps other statewide and legislative offices were on the ballot. Since Louisiana conducts its state and legislative offices in odd-numbered years, there would have been no congressional elections. US government sources often misreport turnout for Louisiana elections because of the different system used there, especially when the runoff was in November. I’ve seen one claim that turnout for one congressional election year was 5%.
Further it concluded: “Figures for these years indicate that voter participation has been essentially unaffected by the open-elections law.”
More votes were cast in the 1979 first primary election compared to the 1972 general election. The drop in turnout (from 52.0% of voting-age population (VAP) to 51.3% of VAP is due to the increase in population. But this was largely due to baby boomers entering adulthood, which could well produce lower turnout (younger voters, particularly single younger voters are less likely to vote). Conversely, there may have been a small bump in 18-21 YO participation in 1971-1972 due to the ratification of the 26th Amendment (completed in September 1971). 18 YO in 1971 would have been more aware of the change.
An interesting aspect of the 1979 election was that the 4 Democratic losers in the primary all endorsed David Treen, who became the first Republican governor since Reconstruction. This may be a clear demonstration that the Top 2 primary fosters less partisanship.
How about posting the results from the first election ever recorded ???
About as USELESS as most of political history on Mother Earth — due to EVIL party hack monarchy/oligarchy machinations for the last 6,000 plus years.
P.R. and A.V.
Steven Rankin, who is no proponent of Proposition 14, has said that portrayal of party rights to be on the November ballot as a “constitutional right” was misleading.
Is the Legislative Council in California under control of the Democratic Party?
Is Willie Brown a supporter of Proposition 14?
#4 Jim Riley is wrong. (He’s wrong in most of his other posts, but I’m only addressing this one here.) Prop 14 does eliminate write-in votes in general elections for those offices to which the top two primary applies. While the language isn’t in the constitutional amendment that will appear on the ballot, it is part of the implementing legislation SB 6 that Maldonado forced the legislature to adopt along with putting Prop 14 on the ballot in exchange for his vote on the February 2009 budget deal. That bill has already been signed into law, but will actually go into effect only if Proposition 14 is approved in June.
from chaptered version of SB 6:
#9 What exactly does it mean:
A person […] shall not be counted?
#10: One of the problems with SB 6, aside from the bad intentions of its authors (who, regardless of whether a top two primary is justified for other reasons and of whether it will actually favor “moderate candidates”, pushed it through in attempt to rig the election system to favor “moderate candidates”) is that it is so poorly written. The poor drafting is the expected consequence of a bill that is part of a last minute deal that never had any hearings.
However, clearly the added section 8606, “A person whose name has been written on the ballot as a write-in candidate at the general election for a voter-nominated office shall not be counted”, is meant to bar those write-in votes from being counted, though the actual language is essentially meaningless (there is no process of counting persons, as opposed to votes or ballots, as part of an election, and other parts of Prop 14 and SB 6 don’t change that).