New legislation proposed by Senator Javier Valdez and the Northwest Progressive Institute that would give Washington’s cities and towns the freedom to switch their elections to even-numbered years received its first-ever hearing today at the end of the Senate State Government Committee’s February 10th meeting.
SB 5723 had its first reading earlier this week in the Senate. It has fourteen cosponsors — about half of the Senate Democratic caucus.
NPI Legislative Director Kathy Sakahara, Professor Zoltan Hajnal of the UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, Anna Fahey of the Sightline Institute, Jazmine Smith of The Washington Bus, Councilmember Chris Roberts of Shoreline, Washington for Equitable Representation’s Kenia Peregrino, and Councilmember Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin all spoke eloquently in favor of the bill.
The committee unfortunately did not have time to hear from the Washington Community Alliance’s Denisse Guerrero or the Asian Counseling and Referral Service’s Joseph Lachman, who were also signed up to testify pro.
Judge Kevin Ringus of the District & Municipal Court Judges Association asked that the bill be amended to exclude municipal judge positions, citing concerns about different municipal judges being elected in different cycles.
NPI’s longtime foe Tim Eyman was the only person who spoke in opposition.
Our pro speakers collectively made the following great points in their testimony:
Tim Eyman’s arguments against our bill were nonsensical. Eyman argued that separating local elections from state and federal elections is a good thing (without offering any reasons or justifications as to why) and also suggested that we ought to keep doing what we’ve been doing because we’ve been doing it for a long time, despite the mountain of evidence that most voters would prefer a change.
Eyman also made it sound as though we do all of our electing for local positions in odd numbered years and so there’s a nice, clear delineation between state/federal and local elections under our current setup. But that is not the case.
Thirty-six out of thirty-nine counties elect their offices in even years now, and as alluded to above, King County is beginning the process of joining them following passage of our charter amendment. That process will be complete by 2028.
Local public utility districts (PUDs) also hold their regular elections in even numbered years as expressly allowed by state law.
Cities and towns once had the freedom to choose their election timing, but the Legislature took that freedom away from them in the 1963 session and forced them all into odd years. We now have decades of data showing that local jurisdictions do not benefit from going alone in their own years.
It is time to fix the mistake that the 1963 Legislature made and end a failed experiment by passing Senate Bill 5723.
Our team at NPI is grateful to everyone who testified pro today or signed in pro. We had well over one hundred people sign in pro and just a handful register opposition. We are particularly appreciative to the Association of Washington Cities for signing in pro and endorsing our bill — working with them to get the language right has been very pleasant and rewarding, and we look forward to continuing to develop this legislation with them and other stakeholders.
If you’d like to watch the hearing, it is available for on-demand viewing from TVW.
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