Anyone else hate the new primary ballots?

[cmf]

I'm in one of those counties (as I'm sure most of us are) that has the single ballot. How freaking confusing. If you forget to mark preference, even if you vote in every Dem race, your ballot doesn't count. I wonder how many misvotes this is going to lead to?

A lot of people I know hate how you have to declare preference. I'm a solid Dem, so I don't really relate. (I grew up in Louisiana where we have top 2 primary, which I do like in many ways, but most people don't like that.)

And what about write-ins?

[progressivebydesign]

1. I like them, actually.

My father in law is a good example of why I like the ballots. He's a DINO. He'll vote republican everywhere except in races he wants to disrupt for the Democrats. He'll vote for the democrat in a primary that will be the weakest against the republican, then he'd vote republican for everything else.

I never jumped around on a ticket.. most people really don't. It was a way to stop people from using their vote for bad purposes.

[cmf]

2. that is a really good reason for them

I hate when people vote to spoil the opposite party.

I mainly hate the layout of the single ballot. I understand it's to save paper, but I think it's going to lead to a lot of misvotes. Hopefully people remember to check their party preference.

[gates]

6. That's why they switched.....

This system is suppose to prevent the sort of thing from happening in a primary..... a rep voting for the "weaker" canidate to win the primary... so the popular person doesn't make it to oppose the Democrat canidate in the general election.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi gates!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[geniph]

3. It's the way primaries are done in nearly every other state

Washington voters are puzzled by it because it's new to us, but people coming from other states are shrugging and going, "so what?"

I know a lot of people who are insisting they'll sit out the primary to protest, which I keep pointing out isn't a very significant protest, as that just ensures that it really is the party faithful who pick the party's candidates (which is all the primary is for, anyway - it's the general election that's for the people as a whole).

[Spirochete]

4. They sent me 4 ballots

different colors for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and independents. Plus a write-in card. The red ones were democrat ballots. Don't remember what the other colors were assigned to.

[mrbassman03]

5. Sam Reed isn't too happy...

I actually had the pleasure of Mr. Reed coming into my Poli Sci class and discussing the reasons for the switch and what it'd mean for the election. Not what he wanted to do, though I do not agree with his alternative, which is the top two candidates in the primary get put on the ballot, regardless of party.

[AntiCoup2K4]

8. The ballots suck!

Berendt fucked up bigtime signing onto this crap. Hopefully they will prove to be such a disaster that they will be short-lived.

And yes, damn it, I'll fully admit to using the system and voting for McCain in the 2000 primary. Any vote against a Bush is a good vote :D

This state has done just fine without having to declare your party at the door. 98% of my votes are Democratic, but I see nothing wrong with eliminating the "greater of two evils" in a Republican primary.

[LisaM]

9. I support the single-party voting

but the ballot was very confusing. First, all the pictures I saw of the multi-party ballot showed that it was going to be all separate colors, and it wasn't - it was all white, with three different sections, and the sections weren't really laid out in a meaningful way - they wandered. Second, as even the poll workers were wondering aloud, blue was Republican and red was Democratic - the opposite of how the nationwide voting preferences are indicated. Also, as long as you don't skip party lines, it seems that it should accept a ballot even if party preference isn't checked (e.g., I only voted in Democratic races, and I checked the Democratic box, but if I hadn't checked the box, you'd think it would be able to accept my ballot even had I not checked the preference - as long as I didn't vote for two parties.)

It also took FOREVER. First, make sure you check the box. Second, make sure you don't accidentally stray into a different party. Third, wade through all the judicial races.

I think they should have printed up separate ballots - it would have assured no ballot spoilage. You'd almost think that they wanted..... oh, no, wait, that can't be!

[RobertSeattle]

10. No problems here

WA resident are pretty damn whiney in my humble opinion - most other states have a single party primary and they survive.

[bettys boy]

11. Amen

Deal with it and move on.

[miss_kitty]

12. initiative 872, meant to overturn this method

i think people should be able to vote for whomever, and for whatever reasons they choose.

now i have a friend who is a district chair, and she likes it.

it promises to be a big mess, i'm sure!