Edi­tor’s Note: The fol­low­ing let­ter, signed by over six­ty orga­ni­za­tions, was sent to mem­bers of the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in sup­port of NPI’s leg­is­la­tion to make it eas­i­er to vote in Wash­ing­ton State by replac­ing “advi­so­ry votes” (which are real­ly anti-tax mes­sages) with truth­ful, use­ful fis­cal information.

Dear Rep­re­sen­ta­tives:

We, the under­signed orga­ni­za­tions, are writ­ing to you in sup­port of Sen­ate Bill 5082, Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Amy Walen’s leg­is­la­tion to elim­i­nate statewide “advi­so­ry votes” and replace them with truth­ful, accu­rate infor­ma­tion about the Legislature’s fis­cal decisions.

In Wash­ing­ton, we believe that vot­ing should be sim­ple and that wide­spread par­tic­i­pa­tion mat­ters. It’s why we have pri­or­i­tized mak­ing vot­ing eas­i­er with laws pro­vid­ing for pre­paid postage on bal­lot return envelopes, expand­ed drop box­es, same day and auto­mat­ic vot­er registration.

This year let’s con­tin­ue that impor­tant work by pass­ing Sen­ate Bill 5082.

The key prin­ci­ples guid­ing this leg­is­la­tion are as follows:

• The bal­lot is sacred and should be free of pro­pa­gan­da. It’s where we make real change in our com­mu­ni­ties; it’s not an appro­pri­ate place for any sort of opin­ion polling.
• Vot­ing should be straight­for­ward, but “advi­so­ry votes” make vot­ing more con­fus­ing and frus­trat­ing, espe­cial­ly for new voters.
• Vot­ers’ time and our tax dol­lars are pre­cious, and should not be wasted.
• We need real tools for mak­ing the Legislature’s work more transparent.

The con­tin­ued pres­ence of “advi­so­ry votes” under­mines all of our hard work to make vot­ing more inclu­sive, and makes our vot­ers feel more dis­con­nect­ed and cyn­i­cal when they open their ballots.

Hav­ing to nav­i­gate “advi­so­ry votes” also need­less­ly wors­ens the vot­ing expe­ri­ence of young vot­ers and new vot­ers who have immi­grat­ed to the Unit­ed States and for whom Eng­lish is not their first language.

Impor­tant­ly, Sen­ate Bill 5082 doesn’t just get rid of “advi­so­ry votes”. It replaces them with a con­tin­u­ous­ly updat­ed web­site offer­ing truth­ful, use­ful infor­ma­tion about the state’s finances, pre­pared by LEAP and OFM staff. This web­site will be adver­tised in the voter’s pam­phlet with a quick response (QR) code, URL, and tele­phone number.

We ask you to pri­or­i­tize Sen­ate Bill 5082 for floor action this year and sup­port it with your vote so that we can make vot­ing more straight­for­ward and equi­table, reduce vot­er fatigue, and ensure every­thing on our bal­lot has meaning.

Thank you for your ser­vice to the peo­ple of the State of Washington.

Sin­cere­ly,

—

AARP Wash­ing­ton State
AFT Washington
APACE
Asian Coun­sel­ing and Refer­ral Service
Asian Pacif­ic Islander Coali­tion of Washington
Asian Pacif­ic Islander Coali­tion of Yakima
Bal­ance Our Tax Code
Cam­bo­di­an Women Net­work­ing Association
Civic Ventures
Code Blue Washington
Com­mon Power
Eco­nom­ic Oppor­tu­ni­ty Institute
Entre Hermanos
Fair­Vote Washington
Faith Action Network
Fix Democ­ra­cy First
Food Lifeline
Fuse Washington
Good Nature Publishing
Indi­vis­i­ble Vashon
Insight Strate­gic Partners
Lati­no Com­mu­ni­ty Fund
League of Minor­i­ty Voters
League of Women Vot­ers of Washington
MajorityRules
Mom­sRis­ing & MamásConPoder
More Equi­table Democracy
Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Social Work­ers WA
Nation­al Coun­cil of Jew­ish Women (NCJW)
Non­prof­it Asso­ci­a­tion of Washington
North­west Com­mu­ni­ty Bail Fund
North­west Harvest
North­west Pro­gres­sive Institute
OneAmerica
Pacif­ic Islander Health Board
Pjals
Pro­gre­so: Lati­no Progress
Pub­lic School Employ­ees of Wash­ing­ton (PSE)
SEIU 775
SEIU Health­care 1199NW
SiX
Sno­homish Indivisible
Taco­ma Asia Pacif­ic Cul­tur­al Center
Taco­ma Min­is­te­r­i­al Alliance
Taco­ma Urban League
The Nature Con­ser­van­cy — Wash­ing­ton Chapter
The Wash­ing­ton Bus
Thurston-Lewis-Mason Coun­ties Cen­tral Labor Council
Tran­sit Rid­ers Union
Urban League of Met­ro­pol­i­tan Seattle
UTOPIA Washington
Walling­ford Indivisible
Wash­ing­ton Bikes
Wash­ing­ton Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
Wash­ing­ton Con­ser­va­tion Action
Wash­ing­ton Edu­ca­tion Association
Wash­ing­ton Fed­er­a­tion of State Employees
Wash­ing­ton Physi­cians for Social Responsibility
Wash­ing­ton State Bud­get and Pol­i­cy Center
Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party
Wash­ing­ton State Labor Coun­cil, AFL-CIO
Wash­ing­ton Stu­dent Association
Wash­ing­ton Vot­ing Jus­tice Coalition