I think some of this is skipping by you Rory. Declaring party affiliation ONLY affects the primary election. Republicans choose who they think best represents them, Democrats choose who they think best represents them, Libertarians etc. etc..

By allowing members of other parties to help whittle the field down, you could potentially get skewed results. It costs taxpayers millions of dollars to hold elections. Without a primary or caucus system you could have potentially unlimited numbers of candidates from each party all vying for state election money.

Most other states have a primary system. The caucus system that WA previously employed, (as I explained above) did not allow everyday voters to have a say as to which candidate should represent them in a general election, instead relying on delegates to make the decision.

If you consider yourself an "informed" voter, and are truly interested in the positions each primary candidate from your party represents, it seems to me that someone with your apparent "google" skills, should have no trouble at all gleaning the necessary information.