PORT TOWNSEND — When Linda LeBrane saw the four separate ballots in envelope in last week’s voter mailing, she decided she couldn’t vote in the primary election.

It feels very un-American, very unconstitutional, LeBrane said Monday morning after returning her absentee ballots for the Sept. 14 primary election to County Auditor Donna Eldridge.

Under the new primary election system in Washington state, each voter receives four ballots and must use one of them to vote for partisan and nonpartisan candidates, or choose the ballot for nonpartisan candidates — such as Superior Court judge — only.

The primary system replaces Washington’s seven-decade open primary, which was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court because it violated political parties’ right to pick their own candidates.

Voting in the Nov. 2 general election will have only one ballot for all candidates.

Across party lines

But for LeBrane, voting across party lines in the primary is “very, very precious to me.”

“I’m not going to be corralled into voting for one party,” she said Monday morning.

“I’m willing to give up my vote to protect my right to vote for candidates from both parties.”

LeBrane isn’t alone in her angst over the primary ballot system, but Eldridge said she’s the only voter to return her ballots to the Auditor’s Office personally.

“We’ve been getting lots of calls (about the new ballot system) for some time,” Eldridge said Monday.

“That’s why we went to the county fair (with a booth).”

Eldridge said 784 absentee ballots were returned to her office Monday.

“Some of them felt like they might have had more than one ballot in them,” Eldridge said.

“There were notes on some of the envelopes that said, ‘I’m not voting.”‘