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For many years, we’ve had many questions about Washington State’s Top 2 Primary (sometimes called a Jungle Primary) system for elections. As the first state to adopt this election system for primaries, and with only one other state using it (California), it is worth discussing. Hopefully people find this helpful and useful. Let me know if you think we missed anything here, and I recommend the links referenced below as helpful for additional research.
OUR CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH THE PHRASE “WE THE PEOPLE.” IT WAS THE FOUNDER’S INTENT THAT GOVERNMENT BE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE. IT WASN’T THEIR INTENTION FOR THE PEOPLE TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT. IT WAS ALWAYS INTENDED THAT GOVERNMENT WHICH FAILED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE “ALTERED OR ABOLISHED.” UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE FOUNDER’S INTENT, WE REMAIN WE THE GOVERNED…
Related Articles (And Background Sources):
(for those who want to exhaustively review every legal filing in the various lawsuits about the top2 primary, go here. Excellent source link to download the original legal documents. Very comprehensive. Great place to find contemporaneous arguments in favor and in opposition in the legal documents)
Historylink – a good summary of the 1934 Grange sponsored initiative
Historylink – A decent history of the primary election policy progression until 2004.
The Washington State Secretary of State’s office posted a brief summary of the history of the Top2 as a bullet-point synopsis, which can be helpful.
This is a downloadable document from the Secretary of State detailing some of the Top2 history – it is weak on early voting issues from the 1920s. If this link is deleted, you can also download it here.
