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Seattle’s vote on voting is still too close to call. After a neck and neck tally on the key yes/no question on the city’s voting reform proposition on Election Night, Thursday ballot count update has only tightened the race.
Votes for no change still lead with 50.55% of ballots cast opting to maintain the city’s top two primary system for electing mayors and the city council but the gap is down to only 2,050 voters, a number that could dwindle further as later ballots from typically younger, more progressive voters are counted.
As of Thursday’s count
What is certain is Seattle voters’ preference for how the process will be changed if the “yes” vote overtakes the “no.” If “yes” prevails, voters overwhelmingly have supported ranked choice voting with nearly 75% of ballots counted opting for the “1b” option on the ballot.
CHS reported here on how the question ended up in front of voters with intervention from the city council and the differences between the proposed formats. Under ranked choice, voters rank candidates in order of preference and the results are tallied. The top two candidates that emerge from the combined voter pool ranking go through to the General Election.
Meanwhile, voters in Clark County and San Juan County are on their way to rejecting ranked choice this week, the Seattle Times reports.
Sorting out what will happen in Seattle might have to wait through the weekend but it won’t be for lack of trying. King County Elections offices will be closed Friday for the Veterans Day holiday but ballots will reportedly continue to be counted on Friday and Saturday.
UPDATE: Friday’s ballot drop marked a reversal, with “yes” votes now commanding a majority at 50.3%. Given the trend, that slim 1,797 vote lead should stretch a bit with the final counts meaning that Seattle’s next primary in 2023 — if the logistics can be worked out in time — will be ranked-choice. The proposition’s language requires the system to be in place by at least 2027.
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I can’t really understand what problem we are trying to solve here. Our Council is diverse and now has radical, progressive, and liberal members. No conservative Republicans, but ranked choice won’t bring that either. We elected a former Republican for city attorney, and have a moderate mayor, so we are current electing candidates all across the spectrum. So what problem is ranked choice trying to correct?
I personally wouldn’t mind having it. I definitely have personally voted for a candidate that would not have been my first choice because I think they can win over one I would prefer, but am pretty sure would be in essence a vote for the opposition, which I really would not like to not see in power… With ranked choice voting I could vote for my actual preference without that fear that I am aiding someone that I absolutely do not want.
The problem solved by ranked-choice voting is that if you have two candidates who are aligned with you, and one candidate who you don’t want to see elected, it lets you say “I’d prefer candidate A and B over everyone else,” rather than having to vote strategically.
Basically it solves the issue demonstrated in this comic.
1) just because it doesn’t seem broken to you now doesn’t mean it can’t break in the future
2) it helps to set a precedent to encourage the rest of the country to change
Hmmmm. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And the best precedent we can set for the rest of the country is to participate at the highest levels in an all mail in ballot format. I’m not in favor of changing our well functioning system just to set an example for the rest of the country.
One big missing piece of context is what’s the volume of ballots remaining to count. Looks like it’s tricky to get a clear picture of that, at least with regard to the city.
Currently just under 200k city of Seattle ballots have been counted. According to: https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20221108/king/ , the county has about 30% of ballots remaining to be counted (566,225 counted, 234,500 remaining). So if city ballots are evenly distributed among the county ballots, we’ve got nearly a third left. Trying to sanity check that, looks like 2018 had about 350k Seattle voters ( https://results.vote.wa.gov/results/20181106/king/ ), so it looks like that tracks.
If anyone has a better way to see remaining estimated city of Seattle counts, please share :) — But if county results are any indication, and if late ballots continue to move in this direction, a flip does seem pretty likely.
And now ‘Yes’ is in the lead by 1700 votes