To the editor: A widely known glitch in California’s top-two primaries is not any motive to revert to the unhealthy previous days of partisan primaries that favor extremism and stoke polarization (“‘Extraordinarily scary’: Specter of an all-GOP governor’s race spurs push to remake open main,” Might 10). The glitch is actual, although. It deserves mending. Fortuitously, there’s a sublime repair, and my house metropolis of Seattle has already enacted it.
The issue, which loomed giant within the governor race till just lately, is that many candidates within the majority Democratic Occasion can break up the first vote, sending two Republicans to the final.
Washington state is California’s solely true companion in utilizing the top-two system. In truth, we invented it right here, and we’ve had time to tune it. Beginning subsequent yr, Seattle’s main ballots will let voters rank their decisions. When tallying, officers will begin eliminating decrease vote-getters on the backside of the pack, transferring ballots to voters’ next-favorite candidate, repeating the method till solely two stay. That means, progressive and conservative voters can each consolidate round their consensus standard-bearers.
California might do the identical. This isn’t full-fledged ranked-choice voting, like San Francisco makes use of and Los Angeles is contemplating. It’s a minimalist kind just for the first.
In Seattle, we name it “ranked prime two,” and since it’s solely wanted in races with big fields, it’s surprisingly straightforward to implement. California’s Legislature might undertake it this yr, and election officers might launch it in 2028 — a greater plan than devolving to the partisan spite matches that prevail in the remainder of the nation.
Alan Durning, Seattle
