Let’s amend the King County Charter to elect all county offices in even-numbered years

Today, our move­men­t’s long-run­ning effort to make elec­tions more inclu­sive and acces­si­ble got a wel­come jolt of ener­gy when King Coun­ty Coun­cil Chair Clau­dia Bal­duc­ci filed a char­ter amend­ment request­ed by NPI that would move reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled elec­tions for twelve coun­ty-lev­el offices to even-num­bered years.

If adopt­ed by the Coun­cil and rat­i­fied by vot­ers this Novem­ber, the amend­ment would even­tu­al­ly result in future elec­tions for Exec­u­tive, Asses­sor, Elec­tions Direc­tor, and Coun­ty Coun­cil being held in midterm and pres­i­den­tial cycles, rather than in odd-num­bered years, as has been the case for many years.

King Coun­ty vot­ers already elect a Pros­e­cut­ing Attor­ney and Supe­ri­or Court judges in even-num­bered years, but oth­er exec­u­tive posi­tions and leg­isla­tive posi­tions are ordi­nar­i­ly con­test­ed in odd-num­bered years, when turnout tends to be low­er and less diverse. Few­er than half of King Coun­ty’s more than one mil­lion reg­is­tered vot­ers returned a bal­lot last year, where­as more than eight in ten of them turned out for the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion the pre­ced­ing year.

As I explained in a post last Novem­ber, had the posi­tion of Exec­u­tive been vot­ed on in 2020 instead of 2021, around twice as many King Coun­ty vot­ers would like­ly have par­tic­i­pat­ed in decid­ing who should hold the coun­ty’s top job.

Inter­est and momen­tum in switch­ing to even-year elec­tions in our state has been grow­ing over the past few years. This past leg­isla­tive ses­sion, for the first time ever, leg­is­la­tion spon­sored by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mia Gregerson (D‑33rd Dis­trict) that would begin a broad­er phase-out of odd-year elec­tions in Wash­ing­ton State advanced out of com­mit­tee and even reached the floor of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives after get­ting pulled out of House Rules.

We will con­tin­ue to work at the state lev­el in future leg­isla­tive ses­sions to improve that bill and secure its pas­sage. But in the mean­time, thanks to the great work of Coun­cil Chair Bal­duc­ci, we have a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to make progress at the local lev­el by adopt­ing this char­ter amend­ment, which would put King Coun­ty on the path to more inclu­sive and acces­si­ble elec­tions. Vot­ers in the state’s largest juris­dic­tion deserve the chance to demon­strate to state leg­is­la­tors that there is pub­lic sup­port for a switch to even-year elections.

Here’s the draft ordi­nance if you’d like to read it:

Should the Coun­cil adopt the ordi­nance, vot­ers would see a char­ter amend­ment on this Novem­ber’s bal­lot with a title such as what the amend­ment proposes:

Shall the King Coun­ty Char­ter be amend­ed to move elec­tions for the coun­ty offices of exec­u­tive, asses­sor, direc­tor of elec­tions and coun­cilmem­bers from odd-num­bered to even-num­bered years?

To imple­ment the change, elec­tions for the twelve afore­men­tioned offices would next be held in 2023 and 2025 for three-year terms rather than four-year terms. Then, in 2026 and 2028, we’d begin elect­ing our King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive, Asses­sor, Elec­tions Direc­tor, and Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­bers in even-num­bered years.

NPI’s research has pre­vi­ous­ly found that a major­i­ty of vot­ers across the state sup­port mak­ing the switch to even-year elec­tions for local posi­tions like these.

The Coun­cil will have sev­er­al weeks to mull over the ordi­nance, as the dead­line to sub­mit mea­sures to the 2022 gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot isn’t until the begin­ning of August. We hope you’ll join us in encour­ag­ing the Coun­cil to move for­ward with this amend­ment so that the peo­ple of King Coun­ty get the chance to vote yes on sim­pli­fy­ing our elec­tions and mak­ing them more inclu­sive and accessible.