You have to declare whether you're republican or Democrat on your primary ballot.   My wife identifies as an independent, so she didn't mark the proper box required by the crown and her ballot was rejected.

The Royal court has decided it’s to tiring to open the ballots first so now they can see which ones to toss immediately.

How did you find out they threw out her ballot?

They sent a letter saying the ballot was incorrect by not checking either democrat or republican.   They requested more information, name  phone number and party affiliation, then they would accept the ballot.

The ballot wasn't "thrown out", it was not accepted.

What county?  My ballot (King) only has a column for Dems and a column for Reps.  You can only pick one candidate, from one of the columns.  Bottom of each column states "End of Dem (or Rep) Party ballot.  Do not vote for a candidate from the other party or your vote will not count."

It's possible that your county has it set up so you're not declaring a party, per se?  You're just indicating which primary you're voting in.

Compare this with states where you have to register to a specific party, and won't get ballots for the other party's primary.

Edit: I just saw where you have to declare on the return envelope.  "I declare that my party preference is the D (or R) Party and I will not participate in the nomination process of any other political party for the 2024 Presidential Election."  This is nothing new.  It's been going on for some time.  You're not registering a party.  You're just indicating a >preference< for one party over the other in the nomination process.  As an independent, your wife should understand this.  There are no other parties on the ballot.  Pick one, and cast a vote in that party.  Nobody is being committed to vote for a specific party in the general election or future elections by what they mark on the envelope.  

As an argument for "voter suppression", this is pretty weak.  Likely she was informed that she could correct the return ballot in some manner.  It's like not signing the envelope, or the signature not matching what's on file.  There's a process to correct it, and still have your vote counted.

Whatever it is - it aint right.  Why should I have to check a box to vote?  My Son refused to check the box, sent his ballot in, and now it's back sitting on the counter.

I mean, It says right on the ballot multiple places that you have to check one of the boxes or it won't be counted. I'm not arguing the fact it's fucking retarded, especially to have the boxes on the outside of the envelope, but it's pretty easy to follow the directions.

And remember, you're not casting a vote for President here.  You're casting a vote for the party's nomination.  You could live in a state where you had to register your party affiliation, and you would only get a ballot for that party.  And if you registered as an independent, or a third party, you wouldn't get a ballot for either R's or D's.

Primary. Everyone will know your business if you check either box.

I just vote in the General Election.

Inasmuch as I agree that marking the exterior of the ballot is bizarre and probably shouldn't continue--especially since the other elections' ballots are not done this way--I do want to gently push back on the idea that people who don't belong to political parties ought to be allowed to vote in partisan primary elections.

What is the limiting principle here?  I have run across copious examples of online MAGA fury over independents and Democrats voting in primaries when it helped other candidates (like Nikki Haley).  There's a point there; if one is not a voting member of, say, the NRA, why should card-carrying supporters of Moms Demand Action be able to vote for the board?  That said, this logic applies to people who just aren't a member of a political party as well.

IIRC, I remember hearing that the political parties were the ones who were behind this having to declare a preference. I don’t like it, either.

The 2 major parties engaged the state to run a vote for them and share the cost.

Other parties decided to use other methods (caucusing, convention, etc.)

Each party only wants their members to select from their partys' options, so the voter has to declare which party they're affiliating with at the time of voting.

If you're not a D or an R, you don't get to have a say in that partys' decisions.

Why should someone who is not a member of either party select that parties candidate for President?

Calm down everyone. It just gives the dems an idea about how many votes they may need to "find" in November.

While you’re arguing over your mailman seeing what’s written on the envelope, you’re forgetting that the Secretary of State publishes which box you marked right next to your name and address as an easily consumable CSV and XML on its website for the entire world to see.

I can hear Stalin creaming himself all the way from Hell.

So I originally thought that the election laws in WA stated if you identified your party, you could only vote for that party, for the primaries. Because that makes sense. Look at the votes Nikki got in some of her primaries. Ds voted for her.

It makes sense to ID the party if that was the law - you can only vote for the party you identify with. Otherwise, in a 60/40 state like WA, the D nominee is a foregone (literally and figuratively) conclusion, so why not have a large population of Ds vote for a weak R candidate?

RCW 29A.08.166 seems to contradict the efforts of the primaries identification.
"Under no circumstances may an individual be required to affiliate with, join, adhere to, express faith in, or declare a preference for, a political party or organization upon registering to vote."

29A.04.127
""Primary" or "primary election" means a procedure for winnowing candidates for public office to a final list of two as part of a special or general election. Each voter has the right to cast a vote for any candidate for each office without any limitation based on party preference or affiliation, of either the voter or the candidate."

So surprise, surprise. Washington is again violating laws and f**king the public.

Since I'm out of there, is anyone suing the state? If your vote didn't get counted because you were forced to ID a party, that's voter disenfranchisement.

Now go read RCW 29A.56.031, 29A.56.040 and 29A.56.050......

Everything you just typed out is wrong.....

You're probably right or pretty close.  We refused to send it in and will wait for the real thing to be part of the silent and not so silent majority that elects Trump.

Yep.  They are probably trying to negotiate lower printing prices, so scheduling in advance gives them a good discount.

It is likely that routine for them now.