Name recognition: Study your candidates, then name your choices in primary election, Aug. 4

Published 4:20 pm Wednesday, July 22, 2015

If the 2016 presidential candidate coverage has you a little disoriented, you are not alone. It’s July, 2015, more than a year from the actual election and months from the caucuses that will convene to choose nominees by party. It seems much too soon for all this campaigning.

Trying to take something positive from the process, I’ve decided that the circus of the national elections machine, while distracting at times, also highlights the importance of the primary elections. For me, that’s a huge shift. Until we switched to the “top-two” type of primary election in Washington, I was not a fan of the primary election. It seemed like a way to limit voters’ choices and increase election offices’ expenses, without providing much benefit to any but the political parties that forced the need for a primary in the first place.

Top-two promises that the two candidates in any race who received the most votes, no matter their parties, will be named on the general election ballot in November. The primary election doesn’t actually result in anyone being kicked out of the race, but it can have the same effect. Candidates who aren’t chosen in the primary, who definitely won’t have their names on the ballots, have to decide whether to drop out of their races, or commit to the notoriously difficult task of running as write-ins.

Top-two is more fair than “straight-ticket” ballots, but it’s not ideal. Turnout for primary elections in King County is historically less than a third of its 1.2 million registered voters, and  often lower than even the February and April special elections. For comparison, general election turnout runs close to 50 percent most years.

So if a dozen politicians from each party are already overwhelming the country just to vie for the nomination, aka their names on the ballot, then our little local primary elections must be almost as important.

We have six positions within three organizations on the primary ballot this year — two city council seats each in North Bend and Carnation and two commissioner positions with the Snoqualmie Valley Hospital District — and there are at least three people running for each of those positions. That’s not counting the other contested races, those with only two candidates running, that we will see on the November ballot.

Next week, the Record will feature Q&A conversations with each of the candidates.

It is intended to give the candidates a fair and equal platform to make their cases for being chosen, but more so, it’s intended to give you, the voters, more information about all of your choices. So if you’re undecided — actually, even if you are sure who you plan to vote for, take a look at the information the candidates provide next week.

The primary election is two weeks away. Ballots were mailed last week to all registered voters.

Here’s a suggestion if you, like me, wait until the last day to vote because you’re still learning about your choices: Don’t leave your ballot on the counter with the rest of the mail. Store it somewhere with low humidity, or else you, like me a few years ago, will discover that your ballot envelope sealed itself, and you’ll have to tear it open to cast your vote.

I’m also not a fan of all-mail voting, but that’s another subject, for another election.

Election day is Tuesday, Aug. 4. Ballots must be postmarked by that date to be counted.

For dropbox locations, visit the King County Elections website, www.kingcounty.gov/elections.aspx.