Spin control: Ballot flaw catches Legislature’s eye
The Legislature has seen fit to change voting laws almost every year this century, and this year is no exception. They’re trying to fix a previous fix that isn’t working too well in the statewide primaries.
Most folks can recall that after the political parties made us give up the wide open primary of our forefathers – the one where a voter could pick any party’s candidate for a particular race – the state had to pass laws to make that work.
Right now, counties can print up multiple ballots – one for Democratic candidates, another for Republicans and a third with nonpartisan races only for folks who don’t want to pick either party’s ballot – or a single ballot with all the candidates.
Spokane County opted for the multiballot option, but some surrounding counties decided to save money and go with onesies.
This is OK under state law if the voter only votes for one party’s candidates and does something to signify that he or she is a member of that party. Checking a box or filling in an oval next to a line on the ballot that says Democrat or Republican is the most common way.
Doesn’t sound like rocket science? It’s not. But some voters don’t read carefully, and others are in a hurry to get their ballots marked and out to the mailbox, and some just can’t bring themselves to accept a party label, even if they always vote for that party’s candidates. Some variation of “None of yer dang bizness” was one of the more common comments by angry voters last year.
Whatever the reason, about 9 percent of the primary ballots – more than 90,000 – weren’t countable because a party designation wasn’t properly marked.
The Legislature is looking at a bill that would allow ballots to be counted even if the party box isn’t checked, as long as a voter sticks with one party.
Those who think that a voter who can’t read instructions shouldn’t be allowed to vote, anyway, may have a point. But don’t expect to find a very big Voters Are Stupid Caucus in either chamber.
Fighting words?
A bill to limit protests near the funerals for war casualties had one of the fastest trips through the Legislature this year, going to the governor on Friday. It may not be constitutional – First Amendment lawyers will get paid far more than journalists to debate that point – but there’s no doubt it’s popular.
It even came up last week at the state Department of Veterans Affairs press conference on a new Eastern Washington cemetery. That subject wasn’t really what he had come to Spokane to discuss, but Director John Lee said he thought the bill was moving fairly well.
Why just 500 feet from a funeral, asked one vet. Why not five miles? Or maybe Idaho?
How about we issue the honor guard live rounds instead of blanks, asked another.
The members of the group most responsible for these protests, a small, fundamentalist church from Kansas, were in Spokane last week on a separate crusade (they’re also against figure skating … no, don’t ask, there’s just not enough space to explain), and it was interesting to see that they blamed everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Iraq war on their favorite whipping boy: homosexuality.
This gets no real traction in Spokane, of course. We know that all bad things are a result of the Gypsy curse.
Escort service
Many of her Washington constituents might not have realized it Tuesday night, but Sen. Patty Murray was part of the escort committee accompanying President Bush down the aisle for the State of the Union address.
She got the gig as a member of Senate Democratic leadership and was following Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who was behind the president, on the way in and out of the chamber.
With the crowd and the camera angles, it was hard to catch a glimpse of Murray on the way in. (Note to Murray’s staff: This is not a suggestion that the senator is, like, height-challenged. But it is a good thing she wasn’t the one sitting next to presidential guest and Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo, because that might have made her look short.)
Idaho viewers might have had an easier time recognizing former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who as Interior secretary had that prominent entrance and good seating that the Cabinet gets.
The escort assignment meant Murray also got a pretty good seat, toward the front of the chamber. This was not necessarily a good thing, however, because it’s in easy camera range, and one never knows when the panning lens will catch one in an unflattering moment. Of particular concern to Murray was that she was sitting next to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has a reputation of being a good joke teller.
Fortunately, the camera did not catch Murray at any point when Bush was discussing the long road ahead in Iraq, but Schumer was getting to the end of some story that started “A priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into this bar …” She reportedly had warned the senior senator from New York to be on good behavior.