Harger: My primary ballot is sitting on my microwave. If a politics nerd is cramming, the August primary isn’t working

I have yet to fill out my primary ballot. It’s on top of my microwave. I figured I’d have it done by now. I don’t.

And I’m a nerd for this stuff. I also don’t vote a party line, which means every race gets its own homework. If I’m still cramming, that tells you something.

Today is Election Day. Ballots are due. And I’d bet real money that half the people reading this just thought, “Wait, that’s today?”

Washington holds its primary in August, the worst week of the year to ask anyone to pay attention

The primary lands the first Tuesday in August. State law. Families are on vacation. Kids are at camp. People are thinking about campsite reservations and cooler ice, not judicial candidates.

Turnout proves it. In 2022, the last midterm primary, about 40% of voters returned a ballot. In King County, 38%. Six out of ten sat it out, and that was a year with a U.S. Senate seat on the ballot.

The maddening part is that Washington has made voting about as easy as it can possibly be. No polling place. No ID. No stamp. The state mails the ballot to your house. All you have to do is fill it out and drop it off.

We’ve removed every barrier to voting except the one where you have to care enough to do it.

Nobody defends the August date. Move it to late May

This wasn’t always the schedule. We moved primaries from September to August in 2008 to give election officials more time to process mail-in ballots. That made logistical sense. For actually getting people to vote, it’s a flop.

Former Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman called it the worst date on the calendar. Democratic consultants say the same thing. When those two groups agree, that’s usually your answer.

My pitch: move it to the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend. Late May. People are still in their routines. School’s wrapping up. Voters are paying attention.

The skeptics will say that creates a long gap before November. Fair point. But five months to study two candidates, watch debates, and actually learn who’s asking for your vote beats cramming the night before like a college kid who forgot about a final.

The first-Tuesday-in-August rule is state law, not constitutional bedrock. Olympia can move it any time. They just haven’t.

Wherever we hold it, vote

Today. If your ballot is sitting on your microwave like mine, fill it out and drop it off. Your voice matters, even if it sounds nothing like mine. Especially then.

We’ve sacrificed too much in this country preserving democracy to let it die in an envelope on the kitchen counter.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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