Summer not ideal for primary election, but do your duty anyway

A checklist of things to do on Tuesday, Aug. 1:

▪ Pack for family camping trip.

▪ Scout back-to-school shopping sales.

▪ Stock up on fans, popsicles and 100-degree day survival kit.

Oh, and by all means, don’t forget to cast your ballot.

This year’s primary election falls on the earliest possible date since Washington lawmakers moved it to the first Tuesday in August. Preliminary Pierce County numbers suggest it will continue a lamentable trend of declining participation — even with a competitive Tacoma mayor’s race for the first time since 2001.

Primary voter turnout, especially in odd-year municipal elections, is riding a long summer slide. And this one’s much less refreshing than the kind your children set up in the yard with a garden hose and plastic tarp.

The prevailing theory holds that people are in full-blown vacation and hammock mode as July rolls into August, unplugged from civic responsibilities until they return to normal school and job schedules in September.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Washington’s primary was anchored to September. Then the federal government intervened, calling on states to put more separation between primary and general elections. The feds wanted to ensure overseas voters — chiefly those in the military — receive ballots on time.

Legislators in 2006 rescheduled primaries to the third Tuesday in August; in 2011, they moved the date even further forward, to the first Tuesday in August.

And there it remains, afloat in the doldrums captured elegantly in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”

Ever since the switch to August, Pierce County turnout has barely touched 20 percent of registered voters during local election years. (With the anomaly of 2011, when it hit 27 percent.) Prior to the change, participation consistently reached 27 to 30 percent.

Don’t expect a civic awakening this year. As of Friday, early King County turnout was 13.67 percent, Snohomish sat at 11.93 percent and Pierce brought up the rear in the metro region at 10.54 percent.

We might add it could have a salutary effect on state governance in even-numbered years: Legislators would be motivated to finish their work, get out of Olympia on time and get on the campaign trail.

What about the exasperating math equation known as voter turnout? Anderson thinks it’s worth testing the theory that a spring primary would boost participation, though she has doubts.

The underlying problem is people feeling disconnected from local government. What’s worse, some local governments seem disconnected from their people.

That malaise cannot be cured by adjusting the election calendar every five years, or by any other silver-bullet fix. It can only be changed one candidate, one ballot and one voter at time, each person taking the duty of citizenship seriously, no matter the time of year.

Including, for now, the first day of August.

This story was originally published July 31, 2017 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Summer not ideal for primary election, but do your duty anyway."