The following editorial originally appeared in The (Tacoma) News Tribune:
Mickey Mouse always makes an appearance. Donald Duck is often close behind. “None of the Above” is another popular alternative in American elections. Seldom do these write-in votes amount to more than a way for disgruntled voters to blow off steam.
But in Washington’s general election Tuesday, write-in candidates were more than a throwaway vote in two key races. They turned out to be a disruptive force, changing the election calculus.
Ultimately, they may help send a pair of high-profile Democrats — Marilyn Strickland, in the 10th Congressional District, and Denny Heck, for lieutenant governor — to office without a majority mandate.
The rising power of eleventh-hour write-in candidacies also points to a deeper distrust in our electoral institutions. With federal court blessing, Washington finally settled on a top two primary system more than a decade ago. That so many voters would rebel against that system now after embracing it in a 2004 ballot initiative is discouraging.
Strickland, the former two-term Tacoma mayor, will win the region’s only open congressional seat, which ironically was vacated by Heck. But as of Friday, only 50 percent of the counted ballots were going Strickland’s way.
Strickland knew she faced a tough opponent from the left flank in state Rep. Beth Doglio, who garnered 36 percent of Tuesday’s count. The wild card turned out to be write-in candidate Marty McClendon, a perennial Republican office seeker and failed lieutenant governor candidate.
Meantime, a write-in candidate had even more outsized influence in the lieutenant governor’s race, where Heck has 47 percent of the vote. Democratic challenger Sen. Marco Liias showed well with 34 percent, and write-in Republican Joshua Freed snatched 19 percent.
If the Evergreen State were the Peach State, Strickland and Heck would face the possibility of yet another election. Under Georgia law, a plurality of votes isn’t enough; a victor isn’t declared unless someone secures 50 percent of the vote, plus one.
We’re glad Washington doesn’t play by the same rulebook. But Washington leaders would be foolish to brush off the Strickland and Heck outcomes. Should they consider changing write-in rules, perhaps requiring more than a simple candidate declaration? Should candidates be disallowed if they’ve already lost an election in a given year? Should election officials examine and report write-in votes individually rather than just count them cumulatively? All ideas are worth discussing. Write-in votes are a valid expression of democracy and shouldn’t be treated as anomalies.
Nationally the number of write-in votes exploded by a factor of five between 1984 and 2016, according to the Federal Election Commission. Clearly these upstart candidacies are more than a Mickey Mouse affair.
