Secretary of State Sam Reed was among friends when he addressed the state Grange Convention in Longview.  The Top 2 reasons for their alliance: both are tireless advocates of the state’s voter-approved Top 2 Primary system, and Reed is about to kick off a centennial celebration for women’s suffrage in Washington, which the Grange promoted heavily 100 years ago.   

When the courts overturned the state’s beloved wide-open “blanket” primary and voters hated being confined to one party’s slate of candidates, Reed and the Grange led the charge for Top 2 Initiative 872. Voters approved it in a landslide in 2004 and the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Reed to implement it, starting last year.

In his address to the Grange gathering in Longview on Thursday, Reed said independent polling showed 3 out of 4 voters, Democrats, Republicans and independents, love the new system, which allows them to vote their favorite for every office, without regard to party label. The two favorites then move forward to the General Election.

Reed told the Grange that some updates and improvements are needed. His request bill, Senate Bill 5681, failed to clear the Legislature, but he’ll keep trying.

Among the hundreds of Grangers in attendance was former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, who has criticized aspects of the new system, primarily the lack of party control over who gets to use the party name on the ballot. Reed notes that the courts won’t allow unrestricted crossover voting if the primary chooses nominees for the parties. The Top 2 is allowed because it isn’t a nominating procedure, but a winnowing election that doesn’t guarantee an R and a D in the final election.

Reed said he respectfully disagrees on who decides who can run under a party preference label — the individual candidate or the party. He said it’s unwise to let a party apply some litmus test that could bar a candidate from filing for office. It’s a fundamental right for an American to state his or her own political preference, he said, adding that the essence of Top 2 is giving people moree choices.

He said he agrees with Novoselic on one point:  that candidates shouldn’t be allowed to just make up names of parties. The reform bill would fix that.