Washington will not move its presidential primary from late May to early March in an effort to attract candidates, a shift which the state’s top election official said would give voters a louder voice in the selection process. It may quiet those voices, and drop the presidential primary entirely.

A special committee with the power to move the date couldn’t muster the votes to make a switch, at times engaging in a partisan fight over the different rules and processes for selecting presidential delegates set by the major political parties.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman had proposed moving the presidential primary from May 24, the date set by statute, to March 8, so it would be before many of the state primaries and caucuses have been held and both parties' nominees would likely be in doubt. State Republicans, who will select half their delegates based on primary results, supported that move. Democrats, who will select their delegates through the caucus system, did not.

The committee required a two-thirds majority to make the change, and could not muster that super-majority for March 8 or an alternative proposal for March 22, which would be four days before the Democrats' precinct caucuses. State Democratic Chairman Jaxon Ravens said national rules would require party officials to educate their voters that the primary did not matter, and worried about confusion for voters with the two dates. Republicans on the panel supported either shift, with state GOP Chairwoman Susan Hutchison saying caucuses are mired in the past and Democrats seem to have a low regard for the intelligence of their voters.

The panel didn’t vote on whether to scrap the May 24 presidential primary entirely and save the state the $11.5 million expense, which state Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia and a member of the committee, proposed in a bill this year. That decision could be made by the Legislature early next year. 

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