VICTORY! Washington Voting Rights Act wins approval in the state Senate for the first time

The Unit­ed States Sen­ate may be wracked by dys­func­tion and dis­agree­ment — espe­cial­ly this week — but here in Wash­ing­ton, our State Sen­ate is on a roll, work­ing dili­gent­ly to advance the good of all the peo­ple under its new Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty. After hav­ing passed the DISCLOSE Act, same-day vot­er reg­is­tra­tion, and the cap­i­tal bud­get ear­li­er this week, our Sen­ate today vot­ed for the first time to adopt the Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Rights Act (ESSB 6002), lib­er­at­ing a bill that had been stuck in the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ grave­yard of progress for years.

“This bill is a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in our ongo­ing effort to expand access to democ­ra­cy in Wash­ing­ton­ian, and estab­lish a tru­ly rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment,” said Sen­a­tor Rebec­ca Sal­daña (D‑37th Dis­trict: Seattle).

“We saw a dra­mat­ic change in rep­re­sen­ta­tion in cities like Yaki­ma and Pas­co after they imple­ment­ed dis­trict-based elec­tions. Wash­ing­ton needs a vot­ing rights act so that every local juris­dic­tion has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do this, and so that impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties can tru­ly have a voice that counts.”

“Vot­ing is a right, not a priv­i­lege,” agreed Sen­a­tor Sam Hunt (D‑22nd District).

“We don’t need bar­ri­ers to vot­ing, we need path­ways. It is our most basic duty to make our democ­ra­cy acces­si­ble to every sin­gle eli­gi­ble vot­er. We won’t suc­ceed by just by increas­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for vot­ing. We must also increase trans­paren­cy in our elec­tions by shin­ing a light on hid­den mon­ey. This pack­age accom­plish­es those goals. Access to democ­ra­cy is essen­tial in hav­ing a strong government.”

“After years of hard work by com­mit­ted com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and leg­is­la­tors, today the Wash­ing­ton Sen­ate passed the Vot­ing Rights Act,” said Rich Stolz, Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of OneAm­er­i­ca Votes. “This is a tremen­dous vic­to­ry for com­mu­ni­ties of col­or striv­ing for greater rep­re­sen­ta­tion across our state, made pos­si­ble by com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who cam­paigned to elect Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra in the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict.  Today, Dinghra is one of two women of col­or in the State Sen­ate.  The oth­er, Sen­a­tor Rebec­ca Sal­dana (LD37), spon­sored this legislation.”

“The Sen­ate’s action today stands in stark con­trast to the the­atrics and threat­en­ing rhetoric ema­nat­ing from the White House. Wash­ing­ton State is set­ting its own path toward greater equi­ty, rep­re­sen­ta­tion and a stronger democracy.”

The roll call was as follows:

Roll Call
ESSB 6002
Vot­ing rights act
3rd Read­ing & Final Passage
1/19/2018

Yeas: 29; Nays: 19; Excused: 1

Vot­ing Yea: Sen­a­tors Bil­lig, Car­lyle, Chase, Cleve­land, Con­way, Darneille, Dhin­gra, Fain, Frockt, Hasegawa, Hawkins, Hobbs, Hunt, Keis­er, Kud­er­er, Liias, McCoy, Milos­cia, Mul­let, Nel­son, Palum­bo, Ped­er­sen, Ranker, Rolfes, Sal­daña, Shel­don, Takko, Van De Wege, Wellman

Vot­ing Nay: Sen­a­tors Angel, Bai­ley, Beck­er, Braun, Brown, Erick­sen, For­tu­na­to, Hon­ey­ford, King, O‘Ban, Pad­den, Rivers, Schoesler, Short, Wag­oner, Walsh, War­nick, Wil­son, Zeiger

Excused: Sen­a­tor Baumgartner

Four Repub­li­cans crossed over to sup­port the Vot­ing Rights Act: Joe Fain, Brad Hawkins, Mark Milos­cia, and Tim Shel­don. Sen­a­tor Baum­gart­ner did not vote on final pas­sage. The remain­ing eigh­teen Repub­li­cans vot­ed nay, while the entire Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus was uni­fied in sup­port of the legislation.

Pas­sage of the Vot­ing Rights Act is one of NPI’s leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ties for 2018. We’re thrilled to see today’s action on the floor of the Sen­ate. The approval of the WVRA is fan­tas­tic news for the peo­ple of the State of Washington.

ESSB 6002 now goes to the House, which has pre­vi­ous­ly vot­ed sev­er­al times to pass pre­vi­ous ver­sions of the Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Rights Act.