WSR 18-12-094 EMERGENCY RULES SECRETARY OF STATE [Filed June 5, 2018, 1:16 p.m., effective June 5, 2018, 1:16 p.m.] Effective Date of Rule: Immediately upon filing. Purpose: To allow flexibility in printing party preference information for county election offices. Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 434-230-045. Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 29A.04.611.
Under RCW 34.05.350 the agency for good cause finds that immediate adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule is necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare, and that observing the time requirements of notice and opportunity to comment upon adoption of a permanent rule would be contrary to the public interest; and that state or federal law or federal rule or a federal deadline for state receipt of federal funds requires immediate adoption of a rule. Reasons for this Finding: One office that will appear on every ballot in the state primary on August 7, 2018, features twenty-nine candidates and the required line for write-in voting. It is necessary to provide county election offices a small amount of flexibility in laying out the ballot face, in order to display all candidates in the same column on the ballot.
Using a single column for displaying a race is preferred in order to reduce the possibility for voter confusion. A voter interpreting a ballot race that is displayed over two columns may not notice the names in the second column and have difficulty locating their preferred candidate. There is also the possibility that a voter could interpret the two columns as two offices and vote for more than one candidate for that office thus invalidating their vote. Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 1, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Date Adopted: June 5, 2018. Mark Neary Assistant Secretary of State
AMENDATORY SECTION (Amending WSR 17-12-090, filed 6/6/17, effective 7/7/17)
WAC 434-230-045 Candidate format.
(1) For each office or position, the names of all candidates shall be listed together. If the office is on the primary election ballot, no candidates skip the primary and advance directly to the general election.
(2)(a) On the primary election ballot, candidates shall be listed in the order determined by lot.
(b) On the general election ballot, the candidate who received the highest number of votes in the primary shall be listed first, and the candidate who received the second highest number of votes in the primary shall be listed second. If the two candidates who received the most votes in the primary received exactly the same number of votes, the order in which their names are listed on the general election ballot shall be determined by lot.
(c) The political party that each candidate prefers is irrelevant to the order in which the candidates appear on the ballot.
(3) Candidate names shall be printed in a type style and point size that can be read easily. If a candidate's name exceeds the space provided, the election official shall take whatever steps necessary to place the name on the ballot in a manner which is readable. These steps may include, but are not limited to, printing a smaller point size or different type style.
(4) For partisan office:
(a) If the candidate stated his or her preference for a political party on the declaration of candidacy, that preference shall be printed below or to the right of the candidate's name, with parentheses and the first letter of each word or abbreviation capitalized. Acronyms shall be printed in all capital letters with or without periods. For example:
John Smith
(Prefers Example Party)
John Smith (Prefers ABC Party)
(b) If the candidate did not state his or her preference for a political party, that information shall be printed below or to the right of the candidate's name, with parentheses and the first letter of each word capitalized, as shown in the following example:
John Smith
(States No Party Preference)
(c) The party preference line for each candidate may be in smaller point size or indented.
(d) The same party preference information shall be printed on both primary and general election ballots.
(5) If the office is nonpartisan, only the candidate's name shall appear. Neither "nonpartisan" nor "NP" shall be printed with each candidate's name.
(6) The law does not allow nominations or endorsements by interest groups, political action committees, political parties, labor unions, editorial boards, or other private organizations to be printed on the ballot.
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