Maxey v. Washington State Democratic Committee

• Decision Date: 26 October 1970
• Docket Number: No. 7838.,7838.
• Parties: Carl MAXEY, Paul Pedersen, Michael Saslow, Fred T. Haley, James Michael Ryherd, Thomas McCarthy, Lawrence Wilets, Plaintiffs, v. WASHINGTON STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE and Dwight Spracher, Chairman, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Washington

319 F. Supp. 673

Carl MAXEY, Paul Pedersen, Michael Saslow, Fred T. Haley, James Michael Ryherd, Thomas McCarthy, Lawrence Wilets, Plaintiffs, v. WASHINGTON STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE and Dwight Spracher, Chairman, Defendants.

No. 7838.

United States District Court, W. D. Washington, at Seattle.

October 26, 1970.

Kenneth A. MacDonald, Seattle, Wash., for plaintiffs.

Daniel Brink, Seattle, Wash., for defendants.

OPINION

ALFRED T. GOODWIN, District Judge:

This is an action by a group of registered voters who seek redress under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, of an alleged deprivation of their right to vote. The case is before the court on joint motions for summary judgment.

Several of the plaintiffs were delegates from the state of Washington to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Others were not selected as delegates, but all hold the position of Democratic precinct committeeman. The nominal defendants include the Washington State Democratic Committee, which is created by state law to represent the Democratic voters of the state. (A related case decided today, Dahl v. Republican State Committee, 319 F.Supp. 682 (W.D.Wash.1970), deals with the constitutionality of the statute creating the state committee.)

Jurisdiction is vested in this court by virtue of 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4). The complaint alleges that certain practices of the state committee result in unconstitutional dilution and infringement of voting rights. The plaintiffs allege that the state committee, under authority delegated by statute, has denied the plaintiffs in the more populous areas of the state equal participation in the presidential-nomination processes. Declaratory and injunctive relief is also sought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202.

Plaintiffs' basic contention is that the one-man-one-vote principle enunciated by the Supreme Court in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962), and Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964), applies to a state political-party-convention system the same as it applies to a party primary.

The Legislature has delegated to political party organizations in the state of Washington certain powers:

"Authority — Generally. Each political party shall have the power to:

(1) Make its own rules and regulations;

(2) Call conventions;

(3) Elect delegates to conventions, state and national;

(4) Fill vacancies on the ticket;

(5) Provide for the nomination of presidential electors; and

(6) Perform all functions inherent in such an organization:

Provided, That in no instance shall any convention have the power to nominate any candidate to be voted for at any primary election." RCW 29.42.010.

The state committee of each major political party consists of one committeeman and one committeewoman from each county, elected by the county committee. The county committees consist of the precinct committeemen for each party from the several voting precincts of each county. A precinct committeeman or committeewoman is elected every two years or appointed by the county chairman as provided for in RCW 29.42.050.

Pursuant to the general grant of authority in RCW 29.42.010, the Democratic State Committee has, for the past fifty years, provided for the election of delegates to the state and national conventions through a statewide convention system.

The state committee describes the convention system as follows:

"Delegates to the national convention are elected through a series of meetings. Democrats attending caucuses in precincts elect delegates to the county conventions, who in turn elect delegates to the state convention. These delegates then meet in congressional district caucuses before the state convention to elect delegates from among their number to the national convention. These are then approved at the state convention where other delegates are elected at large.

"Each county central committee organizes its own county convention, and the state committee organizes the state convention * * *." Washington State Democratic Committee circular, "The Convention Process," January 18, 1968.

State conventions are held every two years. In preparation for the presidential election, the state committee promulgates rules for convening and conducting the quadrennial convention and the election of state delegates to the national convention.

The state committee apportions the number of state-convention delegates among the county party organizations. The formula for making such an apportionment begins with a total number of delegates to the state convention (1,398 in 1968). Each county is customarily allotted a certain number of basic delegate votes (five in 1968). Each county is also allowed five votes for each state senatorial district within its boundary and one for each twenty per cent of the county's population encompassed by a district covering more than one county. Each county receives one additional delegate vote for each 1,000 votes or major fraction thereof cast for the party's presidential nominee at the last presidential election, and one delegate vote for each 2,000 vote plurality the party's presidential nominee achieved over his opponent in that county. Finally, a number of ex-officio delegates (usually state and national elective officials who have, of course, been elected on a one-man-one-vote basis) are designated and appointed by the state committee.

At the county level, the county central committee operates as the functional equivalent of the state committee in calling and organizing the county convention and apportioning its delegates among the precincts.

Early in a presidential-election year, the chairman of the county committee calls a county convention for the purpose of electing delegates to the state convention. In large counties the apportionment of delegates to the county convention is determined by the county committee. Delegates include the precinct committeemen and all other delegates elected at the precinct caucuses convened by the precinct committeemen. In the smaller counties, an open convention is held, with all Democratic voters invited to attend and participate in the election of state-convention delegates.

In the largest counties state legislative district meetings are held in order to nominate state convention delegates, and these are then approved by the county convention. All county delegates elected at the precinct caucuses held within the state legislative district are invited to attend district meetings, and the district meeting in effect becomes a subcommittee of the county convention and suggests state-delegate nominees for county-convention approval.

At the state level, the congressional district caucus is the functional equivalent of the state legislative district meeting. The congressional district caucus takes place after the precinct caucuses and after the county conventions but before the state convention. Officially convened by the state Democratic chairman, the congressional district caucus elects the district's allotted delegates and alternates to the national convention. Only the elected delegates to the state convention from the counties making up the respective congressional districts are eligible to attend and vote at the district caucuses.

The final step in the process of electing delegates to the national convention is the state convention, attended, as noted, by delegates elected from the county conventions. The primary purpose of the state convention is to ratify the national-delegate nominees from the congressional district caucuses. A certain number of at-large delegates are also elected by the state convention. The ex-officio delegates appointed by the state Democratic chairman then fill out the remaining vacancies in the Washington state delegation to the Democratic National Convention. There is no challenge before the court as to these ex-officio delegates.

In July of 1970, a Democratic state convention was convened pursuant to the procedures outlined above. (No national-convention delegates were elected at the 1970 convention, because a state convention will be convened in 1972 for that purpose.) A resolution was adopted by the 1970 state convention which urged that "the procedure and call for the delegate selection to all caucuses and conventions, held by the Democratic Party in 1972 shall strive for maximum participation and fairness * * *." The resolution suggested procedures which, if adopted by the state committee, would bring about the kind of delegate allocation sought by the plaintiffs in this action, and would bring the delegate selection procedure into conformity with the one-man-one-vote principle.

There is no real dispute as to the unrepresentative nature of the convention system under the present delegate-allocation formula used by the state committee. It is therefore not necessary to enter into a detailed analysis of population estimates and alleged disparities of representation except to note that King County and the other more populous counties are seriously underrepresented in the selection process for the Washington delegation to the national nominating convention.

At the 1968 state convention, for example, each delegate from King County represented some 2,800 voters based on total population, and 670 "Democrats" based on 1964 presidential voting, while each delegate from San Juan County represented some 420 total voters and 125 Democrats.

Several initial obstacles to any consideration of the merits of this case have been asserted by the defendant state committee. I have no doubt that this case presents a justiciable controversy, despite defendant's contentions to the contrary. One element of justiciability involves the political-question doctrine. The scope of this doctrine has been greatly narrowed in recent years. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962); Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964); Williams v....