Ranked Choice Voting Proposal Heads To King County Council

KING COUNTY, WA — King County residents may have a chance in November to decide whether to shift elections for certain public offices to a ranked-choice voting system.

Two states and a growing number of cities across the nation have recently adopted similar measures, which allow voters to have their ballots count for other candidates they prefer in the field, even if their top choice fails to advance.

Following Maine's lead, Alaska is on track to become the next state to use ranked-choice for all general elections on the state and federal level next year, then in 2024 for the presidential election. In New York City, this year is the first where voters are using ranked-choice ballots for all citywide offices, including the mayor.

Locally, Metropolitan King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay is introducing legislation seeking to amend the county charter to allow for ranked-choice voting for county positions. If the ordinance passes the council, voters would get the final say in the November election. If approved, the change would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022.

The offices that would be affected by the change include:

• King County Executive
• King County Assessor
• King County Prosecuting Attorney
• King County Council
• King County Director of Elections

Zahilay unveiled the plan Tuesday, penning an opinion piece in the Stranger, co-authored with state Rep. Kirsten Harris-Talley and Kamau Chege, director of the Washington Community Alliance.

They wrote in part:

Ranked-choice voting gives you the option to rank candidates in the order you prefer: first, second, third, and so forth. If your favorite can’t win, your vote counts for your next favorite choice. It’s a simple change that can bring big benefits.

With RCV, voters don’t have to worry about “wasting their vote.” And gone would be the days of voters being shamed into supporting the “lesser of two evils.” Instead of pitting communities against each other in zero-sum elections, like-minded communities can vote together in coalition.

This incentivizes candidates to campaign to all voters, not just to their base. Candidates who rank high among many voters are rewarded, and demagogues pay a political price for sowing division.

The authors note that while Washington state law bars certain local governments from enacting such reforms, King County has the authority to do so as a charter county. A legislative effort to allow all cities and counties to adopt ranked-choice systems failed earlier this year.

Voters can find the full text of Zahilay's council legislation via the King County Clerk. Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles signed on as a co-sponsor of the proposal Tuesday, and it now sits before the council's Committee of the Whole.