Seattle Times endorses NPI’s legislation to repeal statewide “advisory votes”

Today, the Seat­tle Times pub­lished an excel­lent edi­to­r­i­al endors­ing NPI’s 2023 leg­is­la­tion to repeal statewide “advi­so­ry votes,” which just passed out of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate last week with bipar­ti­san sup­port and has now arrived in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for fur­ther consideration.

Titled “Boot con­fus­ing advi­so­ry votes from WA bal­lots,” this is a fresh con­tender for our team’s favorite Seat­tle Times edi­to­r­i­al. It’s well writ­ten, has com­pelling open­ing and con­clud­ing pas­sages, and the log­ic that holds it togeth­er is sound.

“If Wash­ing­ton law­mak­ers can do any­thing to make the vot­ing process eas­i­er and pos­si­bly increase vot­er par­tic­i­pa­tion, they should,” the edi­to­r­i­al begins.

“The state Leg­is­la­ture can end the mad­ness of advi­so­ry votes by approv­ing House Bill 1158, or its com­pan­ion Sen­ate Bill 5082, which passed out of the Sen­ate on Wednes­day,” a sub­se­quent pas­sage explains.

The whole edi­to­r­i­al — a brief and enjoy­able read — is worth your time.

With this excel­lent and thought­ful com­men­tary, the Times has now joined The Her­ald of Everett, the Wal­la Wal­la Union Bul­letin, and The Columbian in call­ing for “advi­so­ry votes” to be per­ma­nent­ly scrapped by the Leg­is­la­ture. The Her­ald even restat­ed its posi­tion recent­ly, to empha­size to read­ers and law­mak­ers that this leg­is­la­tion needs to be pri­or­i­tized in the 2023 leg­isla­tive session.

Here are a few excerpts from those oth­er edi­to­ri­als sup­port­ing our bill:

“Mean­while, the impo­tent advi­so­ry votes help to clut­ter the bal­lot and cost tax­pay­ers. This year’s advi­so­ry votes are the only statewide items in front of vot­ers, requir­ing a state Vot­ers’ Pam­phlet that oth­er­wise would be unnec­es­sary. In oth­er words, Wash­ing­ton can do bet­ter.” — “In Our View: Advi­so­ry votes waste tax­pay­er mon­ey” (The Columbian, pub­lished Octo­ber 8th, 2021)

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“Unlike a legit­i­mate advi­so­ry vote — one that’s tak­en pri­or to the action of a gov­ern­ment body — the tax “advi­so­ry” votes don’t require any action by state law­mak­ers and don’t inform them pri­or to a par­tic­u­lar vote; they’re lit­tle more than a pub­lic opin­ion poll. And they are no bet­ter than the least accu­rate of polls, a ‘push poll,’ writ­ten to prod a respon­dent to a par­tic­u­lar position.”

– “Ballot’s ‘push polls’ on tax­es don’t advise any­one” (The Her­ald of Everett, pub­lished Feb­ru­ary 11th, 2020)

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“The cost of adding the advi­so­ry votes to the bal­lot does not jus­ti­fy con­tin­u­ing this man­date. Andrew Vil­leneuve, founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, said his orga­ni­za­tion looked at the cost of the 2017 elec­tion, find­ing Wal­la Wal­la Coun­ty billed the state $11,438.52 for costs asso­ci­at­ed with the advi­so­ry votes. When the cost incurred by the oth­er 38 coun­ties are cal­cu­lat­ed, it’s clear tax­pay­ers would save by elim­i­nat­ing the advi­so­ry votes. The Leg­is­la­ture has the pow­er to take that action, and should do so.” — “It’s time to end non-bind­ing tax advi­so­ry votes” (Wal­la Wal­la Union Bul­letin, pub­lished Feb­ru­ary 9th, 2020)

As these edi­to­r­i­al boards all rec­og­nize, “advi­so­ry votes” are a misnomer.

Despite their name, they are nei­ther advi­so­ry nor votes, owing to hav­ing been cre­at­ed by Tim Eyman to fur­ther his agen­da of under­min­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence in our elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives and acti­vate a cyn­i­cal, unhealthy state of mind.

Our team has been heart­ened to see sup­port for this wor­thy elec­toral reform leg­is­la­tion increase with each sub­se­quent session.

In addi­tion to our state’s major news­pa­pers, the Wash­ing­ton Asso­ci­a­tion of Coun­ty Audi­tors, the Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Jus­tice Coali­tion, and Bal­ance Our Tax Code have all endorsed this leg­is­la­tion, along with our friends at the Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty Insti­tute, the League of Women Vot­ers, Asian Coun­sel­ing and Refer­ral Ser­vice, Fix Democ­ra­cy First, Major­i­tyRules, and many oth­er organizations.

In the House, one third of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus has signed on to SB 5082’s com­pan­ion bill, includ­ing three key mem­bers of leadership.

We’re look­ing for­ward to work­ing with our state rep­re­sen­ta­tives to bring this bill home and get it to Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee’s desk so it can be signed into law.