New Elway poll: Voters like Top 2 Primary

OLYMPIA - A new statewide poll shows that Washington voters like the new Top 2 Primary and much prefer it to the “pick-a-party” system that required voters to restrict themselves to one party’s candidates.

The poll, conducted by independent pollster Stuart Elway for the state Elections Division, showed:

• A heavy percentage of voters, 76 percent, liked the Top 2 system that made its debut last week. The new system, approved by the voters as Grange-sponsored Initiative 872 in 2004 and recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme court, allows voters to choose their favorite for each partisan office, without regard to party. Candidates are permitted to indicate which party they prefer, but that doesn’t mean the party approves of, or associates with, the candidate. Top 2 is not a nominating process to pick a finalist from each party, but rather a winnowing election to send the two favorite candidates forward to the November finals. The Elway poll showed that 19 percent did not like the new system and the rest did not answer or didn’t know.

• By a lopsided 67-28 margin, respondents said they didn’t like the “pick-a-party” system that was used in the four previous years. That system, which allowed a voter to choose only among one party’s candidates, resulted from then-Gov. Gary Locke’s veto of the Top 2 plan passed by the Legislature in 2004. The “pick-a-party” system was the fallback system lawmakers had approved. Secretary of State Sam Reed, some County Auditors and the state Grange organization had promoted Top 2, first as legislation, and later, as a citizen initiative. Voters approved I-872 by 60 percent in November, 2004, but it was on hold while the parties challenged it in federal court. The state and its voters won on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in March.

• Asked which of the two systems they prefer now that they’ve been able to see both in operation, voters strongly preferred the Top 2 Primary –70.5 percent, to the pick-a-party system’s 20 percent. The rest said “neither” or gave no answer.

The poll showed that respondents of both major parties and self-described independents prefer the Top 2 approach over the pick-a-party system – 82 percent of the independents, 68 percent of the Democrats and 66 percent of the Republicans.  On the Top 2 question, 83 percent of the independents said they liked the new system, 80 percent of the Democrats and 66 percent of the Republicans.
 
“The poll confirms the reports we received from election offices all around the state: the voters liked the Top 2 Primary,” said Nick Handy, state elections director.

Reed said the clear and overwhelming popularity of the new system shows that it fits well with the state’s long political tradition of independence and the notion of “vote for the person, not the party.”

The poll was conducted Aug. 22-24 among 500 registered voters who voted in both the 2006 pick-a-party primary and this year’s Top 2. Margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. The poll participants, asked their party preference, split this way: Democratic, 39 percent; Republican 30 percent; 21 percent independent and the rest declining to answer or none of the above. The poll showed that 94 percent were aware of the new primary system and 75 percent said they had seen or heard news stories and public-service ads about the new system prior to voting.

Elway said he wasn’t surprised by the huge popularity of the new primary. He said his earlier polling on the old “blanket” primary showed similar enthusiasm for a system that allowed crossover voting and chose a nominee for each major party. That system was tossed by the courts after the parties sued.

“Before we switched to pick-a-party, we had the old blanket primary system for nearly 70 years – almost no one now alive can remember anything else, other than our last few years with pick-a-party. Options that let people go across party lines to vote in the primary have been lots more popular here. It’s pretty deeply rooted here. Significant majorities in both parties say they like this new system.” 

Ballots are still being counted in last week’s voting, and total turnout is expected to top 42 percent. Over 1.4 million ballots have been tallied so far. Handy, the elections director, said turnout is fairly strong this year, despite the lack of many hotly contested primaries and the lack of a U.S. Senate race this year. The Top 2 system generated almost no voter complaints or questions about how the system works, compared with the heavy blowback from angry voters when the pick-a-party system was implemented in 2004, he said. 

Grange spokesman Dan Hammock said the poll backs up what the Grange has been saying all along about the popularity of wide-open voting. “Washington voters are so independent-minded and they don’t want to be limited. The choice couldn’t be more clear, and the new poll just proves that. We’re very pleased.”