Alternate Bill to Cancel Presidential Primary Proposed in Washington State

In Washington state today, Rep. Christopher Hurst (D) introduced a bill (HB 1860) to tie whether the state has a presidential primary to the two parties collectively utilizing the system as a means of allocating all of their national convention delegates. If, as has been the custom in the state during recent presidential election cycles, the Republicans split the allocation of their delegates between both the primary and a caucus and the Democrats shun the primary in support of a caucus, the presidential primary in the state would be cancelled during that cycle. This has the effect of avoiding the sunset provision that is included in both SB 5119 and HB 1324. Instead, it makes the expenditure of funds for the primary dependent upon the parties both adopting the primary as the sole method of delegate allocation.

The bill also gives the parties the option of together agreeing upon and notifying the secretary of state of an alternate (and presumably earlier) date for the primary. It is currently set for the fourth Tuesday in May.

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