This November three important reforms will appear on our ballot: Charter Amendments 1, 2 and 3.
Together these amendments will repeal Ranked Choice Voting, restore the top-two primary, limit members of the County Council and the County Executive to three terms in office and move county elections to odd numbered years. These three reforms are on our ballot this year because of the important lessons we learned in the 2008 election and to save tax payers money.
I urge you to vote “approve” on all three amendments.
Ranked Choice Voting, sometimes called “IRV,” has failed to live up to the many promises made by its supporters when we tried it 2008. They said it would be cheaper, fairer, easier and more democratic than the alternative. On every single count they’ve proven to be wrong.
Each year RCV costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the top-two primary would. In the race for County Executive more than 10 percent of votes cast were discarded by the system, over 30 percent of the votes cast for Assessor-Treasurer were discarded. In both of these important races RCV failed to provide a majority winner — which we were told was the most important reason for supporting RCV.
I have good news: the alternative to RCV isn’t another untested experiment, but the popular and fairer top-two primary that we used for every other election in 2008. Approving amendment 3 will get us back to normal elections.
2008 also showed how tough it is for local issues to stand out in big election years. By moving county elections to odd years local issues and candidates will get the attention they deserve and voters will be able to make more informed decisions.
Local tax payers save money through odd year elections because the state covers a higher share of the costs. King County currently benefits from this arrangement; approving amendments 1 and 2 will give us the same benefits.
In 2007 voters set a limit of three terms on most county offices by a vote of nearly 75 percent, up from two terms. Amendment 1 would do the same for the County Council and County Executive. When we approve amendment 1 we’ll have a uniform limit for all county offices. One down side of moving to odd numbered years is that some people would lose a year of service, by combining the new term limits with the odd numbered years we solve this problem.
Together we can make 2009 the year we reformed elections for the better in Pierce County. Please vote “approve” on 1, 2 and 3.
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