King County's Ranked Choice Voting Plan Tabled Until Next Year

KING COUNTY, WA — The King County Council is hitting pause on a proposal that would have sent a ranked-choice voting ordinance to voters in November. The plan, co-sponsored by Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Jeanne Kohl-Welles, was unveiled in June. If approved at the ballot box, it would have amended the King County charter to allow voters to rank their choices in order of preference for certain county-level races, starting next year.

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

Last month, Zahilay co-authored an opinion piece in The Stranger, pitching a ranked-choice voting system similar to ones already in place in a growing number of cities and states across the nation.

The piece reads 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.

On Monday, Zahilay announced the council would postpone its legislation until 2022, citing approaching ballot deadlines and more time needed to hammer out the specifics.

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 was the first where voters used ranked-choice ballots for primary and special elections.