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February 09, 2008

Washington Caucuses: Thousands of ballots tossed

Thousands of voters' ballots tossed out

Nearly one in four King County voters who mailed in their ballots did not identify themselves as Democrat or Republican, nullifying their votes in the presidential primary.

The elections office Friday called it a combination of protest and error. Some voters do not want to publicly declare a political party, even though their vote remains secret. Other voters might not know their votes will not be counted unless they choose a party.

With a solid majority indicating in recent polling that they didn't intend to participate in the caucuses I'm wondering if this might really be more protest than anything? An overwhelming majority indicated an intention to participate in the primary vote held on the 19th. So what is being protested is hard to say.

These are primary vote ballots that have been tossed, not something associated with the caucuses. Since the Washington Dems apportion delegates based solely on the caucus results, any tossed Dem ballots are relatively meaningless. But Republican's split their apportionment between caucus and vote results.

Posted by Kevin at February 9, 2008 04:54 PM