Picking a party demands too much. Presidential primary needs revamping | Editorial

With an election deadline on Tuesday, we typically would remind everyone who has yet to vote to turn their ballots in pronto.

Not this time.

This time, we say if you don’t want to vote in the presidential primary, we understand.

Many journalists are skipping this one. So too are government workers — at all levels, and business owners, school officials and many others who feel uncomfortable declaring themselves a Republican or Democrat.

In order to vote in this year’s presidential primary, people must check a box on the outside of their ballot that says which party they belong to.

If they leave the outside blank, their vote does not count.

We knew the pick-a-party requirement would be a sticking point for many voters. As it turns out, at least tens of thousands of ballots across the state are at risk of not being counted, largely in part to people not checking a party box, according to news reports.

It’s too bad. In this year’s presidential primary election, our state finally carries some weight.

In the past, Washington’s presidential primary election was the fourth Tuesday in May. That often meant our voters had zero clout.

By the time our election rolled around in 2016, Donald Trump was the only Republican in the GOP race.

And state Democrats had already decided on Bernie Sanders from their caucus meetings. They allocated all their delegates to him, and ignored that Hillary Clinton was the pick in the statewide election.

We were grateful when the state Legislature decided to move up our presidential primary election so our state could be more than an afterthought in the process.

We also were glad to hear that, this time, the Democrats would forego the caucus system and use the results of the election to determine their delegates.

These are key improvements. But it is apparent the process still needs work.

In Benton and Franklin counties, letters are being sent to hundreds of voters who did not pick a party. If they don’t fix their ballots, their votes will be tossed aside.

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman told The Seattle Times that her office has been getting bombarded with complaints from voters who don’t want to affiliate with a political party. Wyman, a known Republican, even has refused to check a box, which will ruin her perfect voting record.

The Seattle Times reported she wants to avoid endorsing any presidential candidate, and since President Trump is the only Republican on the ballot, she isn’t checking a box. She told The Seattle Times she wants to preserve her neutrality as an election administrator.

One way to help prevent this same mess in the future would be for the Legislature to adopt Wyman’s plan to provide an option for “unaffiliated” voters.

Under her proposal, the “unaffiliated” votes would be tallied separately, and it would be up to the political parties to decide if they would consider those votes when they allocate their delegates to the national convention.

Wyman tried to get the Legislature to embrace the idea last year, but was unsuccessful. We encourage her to keep trying.

The rules now leave too many people out of the process.

Wyman’s plan to allow an “unaffiliated” option is a good one.

It doesn’t force the parties to accept those votes, but does allow everyone the opportunity to participate.

In addition, we think the tally from unattached voters would be a useful gauge. Knowing who the Independent voters support would be helpful information as presidential campaigns move forward, especially since no one has to declare a party preference in the general election.

For now, though, the process is what it is. If you had been planning to vote and haven’t yet, we say go for it.

But if you decide to take a pass on this election, don’t feel guilty. We get it.