A quick look at the presidential election results posted on the Washington Secretary of State’s website will show you that Gary Johnson is credited with getting 5.01% of the vote. By a very thin margin, Johnson’s performance is enough to gain major party status in the state, as reported by KXRO news radio. Except that apparently it’s not. Richard Winger at Ballot Access News reports that the Secretary of State Kim Wyman is proclaiming that the Libertarian Party of Washington did not get enough votes to attain that status.

The reason Wyman gives for denying the LP is that write-in votes are not included in the totals. Again, the 5.01% percentage is taken the official website of Wyman’s office that, presumably, she could have corrected if it is in error. The web page does note that the total does not include write-in votes. There were apparently about 78,000 write-ins that Wyman won’t count. And there’s no reason to count them. As most of us know, votes for president are really votes for electors to participate in the Electoral College. Since Washington doesn’t require electors for write-in presidential candidates, those votes are not valid. Past practice demonstrates this to be true, as write-in votes have not been reported, or even acknowledged, in Washington since 1992. You can see by checking the results from 2012 and 2008 that the figures given are reported as 100% of the vote, with no write-ins accounted for.

Washington has a top-two primary system, a flawed process that resulted in two Republicans advancing in the State Treasurer race in the state this year even though the majority of votes in the primary went to Democrats. Under the top-two, anyone may file to be candidate for any office for which they qualify and stipulate what party label they may have. The major party status that the Libertarian Party should be granted only applies to the presidential race. Without that status, a party can get their candidate on the ballot with a petition of 1,000 signatures, which is quite reasonable compared to most other states.

The only reason that Kim Wyman has for denying major party status to the Libertarian Party on the untenable basis of invalid votes that aren’t going to be counted is for the political purpose of denying evidence of legitimacy to an alternative party. It’s wrong, shamefully so, and if Wyman cannot be persuaded to reverse her decision the Washington LP ought to take it to court so that her cheap partisanship can be paraded before the people of the state.

Update: The Libertarian Party of Washington is prepared to bring a lawsuit if Wyman persists in her refusal to grant major party status to them.