Initiative 872 was a 2004

ballot initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put directly to a plebiscite o ...

that replaced the

open primary Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

being used in Washington state with a top-two

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

. It was challenged in court up to the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, which upheld the top-two primary in ''Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party''.

Background

The

blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a Partisan primary, primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office wit ...

in Washington State was started by an Initiative to the Legislature filed in 1934 and passed in 1935. The political parties in Washington tried numerous times to have an open or closed primary system implemented, and it even filed a lawsuit that was decided by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1936. The state was represented in that lawsuit by

Warren Magnuson Warren Grant Magnuson (April 12, 1905May 20, 1989) was an American lawyer and politician who represented the Washington (state), state of Washington in United States Congress, Congress for 44 years, first as a United States House of Representativ ...

. The political parties in Washington State filed another lawsuit against it in 2000 when the blanket primary in California was overturned by '' California Democratic Party v. Jones'' and won the case. The Washington State Legislature passed a new primary system in 2004, which would have created a new top-two primary system, with an open primary as a backup, giving the Governor the option to choose. Secretary of State Sam Reed advocated for the top-two, but on April 1, 2004, the Governor used the line-item veto to activate the open primary instead.

2004 campaign

Initiative 872 was filed on January 8, 2004, by Terry Hunt from the Washington Grange. The language of the ballot measure summary was as follows:

This measure proposes a new system for conducting primaries for partisan offices. This proposal continues current practice of permitting voters to vote for any candidate for any office in primary and general elections, without limitation based on party. The two "top" candidates with the most votes in the primary advance to the general election. Candidates continue to designate their party. It becomes effective only if the court decision invalidating the traditional blanket primary becomes final.

The political parties in Washington opposed I-872 because they felt it would create an opportunity for someone not directly associated with the party to claim the party name on the ballot. The measure passed with 1,632,225 yes votes and 1,095,190 no votes in 2004.

More lawsuits

On July 15, 2005, the initiative 872 was declared unconstitutional by the

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

. On March 18, 2008, the US Supreme Court reversed the decision and upheld 872. Supreme Court Decision(PDF)

Top two primary implementation

The decision to uphold 872 changed the implementation of the 2008 primary election, which was held on August 19.

2008 election

In 2008, two State Senate races and five House of Representatives elections had either two Democrats or two Republicans get through the primary election, appearing together on the general election ballot. The results of a study from Gonzaga University comparing the results in Washington state between the 2004 (closed) and 2008 (top two) primaries, indicate that the top two primary overall reduced the likelihood of running against a same party candidate and it reduced the likelihood that a strong incumbent would face a challenger from his or her own part

References

{{reflist

External links

Blanket Primary Website
from the Washington Grange. *Th
NW Progressive Institute
opposes the Top-two primary 2004 Washington (state) ballot measures, 872 Washington 2004 Electoral reform referendums Electoral system ballot measures in the United States