Cara Brown McCormick
This morning, KIRO News Radio reporter Matt Markovich had exciting news for political reformers: Washington lawmakers have introduced and held their first public hearing on House Bill 1448, which allows local governments across the state to adopt ranked choice voting (RCV).
Seattle voters are already on the cutting edge of reform. Years ago, they eliminated first-past-the-post voting in favor of "Top Two" voting. More recently, in November 2022, they approved a citizen-led ballot measure to implement RCV in primary elections for mayor, city attorney, and city council.
Still, the system will not be in place until August 2027.
Rather than mandating RCV statewide, HB 1448 simply allows all local governments in Washington to adopt the system with uniform standards. The bill requires that ballots be easy to understand and that vote-counting be straightforward.
The bill also creates an RCV working group to help develop training materials and voter education programs to aid in the transition.
Markovich’s coverage of yesterday's public hearing in Olympia highlighted testimony that RCV would encourage higher voter participation, reduce negative campaigning, and create fairer elections by eliminating the fear of “wasting” a vote on a less popular candidate.
“It’s a more collaborative, big-picture approach to elections, and supporters claim it’s a better way to ensure leaders represent the true majority,” he wrote.
Treveon Parish, a youth leader, testified about RCV’s potential to increase youth voter turnout. Colin Cole emphasized to the committee that RCV is secure and auditable, pointing to successful implementations in cities across America.
Vivian Olson of Edmonds said that RCV levels the playing field for non-incumbents and could encourage more candidates to run:
“I’m excited for a voting future where everyone who wants to be on council runs in a single pool of candidates for all seats. This method will sometimes do away with the extra cost of a primary election, reduce negative campaigning, and will encourage more people to run for office as running for a position is much less intimidating than running against an incumbent.”
With cities from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon, successfully using ranked choice voting, Seattle and other cities in Washington will surely follow. According to KIRO News Radio, the bill faces a final committee vote in the coming days and, if passed, will take effect on July 24, 2025.
