In just a few weeks, coun­ty elec­tion offi­cials across Wash­ing­ton will drop mil­lions of bal­lots into the mail for the 2023 Novem­ber gen­er­al election.

This will be the fif­teenth gen­er­al elec­tion in the vote-at-home era in Wash­ing­ton State his­to­ry and the third gen­er­al elec­tion in a row with no statewide mea­sures of any kind on the bal­lot. Notably, it will also be the first gen­er­al elec­tion in more than a decade with no anti-tax dis­in­for­ma­tion at or near the top of the ballot.

That’s because Tim Eyman’s push polls have gone into the dust­bin of history.

Yes — real­ly and truly!

These things…

Break­ing down Tim Eyman’s “advi­so­ry votes”: A slide from NPI’s deck explain­ing why push polls don’t belong on our ballots

… are gone!

When you open your bal­lot this year, you will see can­di­date elec­tions and local propo­si­tions right there at the top. There won’t be any poor­ly word­ed, fake bal­lot mea­sures labeled “advi­so­ry votes” next to the instruc­tions, because our leg­is­la­tion to get rid of those incred­i­bly annoy­ing, vote-sup­press­ing pro­pa­gan­da pieces has gone into effect. It’s now the law of the land in Washington.

It was a great day when Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee signed our bill into law back in April, with our cham­pi­ons Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Amy Walen stand­ing with us. It was again a great day when our bill took effect in July. And it was still again a great day when the fis­cal dash­board our bill cre­at­ed went online in ear­ly August thanks to the joint efforts of LEAP and OFM staff.

Now we’re about to begin the next chap­ter: our first gen­er­al elec­tion vot­ing sea­son in over a decade with no Tim Eyman push polls. No elec­tion work­er or activist will have to explain what they are or how to respond to them because they no longer exist. A stu­pid, ridicu­lous bar­ri­er to vot­ing has been dismantled!

Cour­tesy of our coun­ty elec­tions offi­cials, many of whom also stood with us in the noble effort to pass Sen­ate Bill 5082 we’ve obtained a set of sam­ple bal­lots for the Novem­ber 2023 gen­er­al elec­tion. Here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect to see — and not see! — when your bal­lot lands in your mail­box next month.

Let’s look at some King Coun­ty sam­ple bal­lots first.

2023 King Coun­ty gen­er­al elec­tion sam­ple bal­lot (Seat­tle, Eng­lish, pro­vid­ed by King Coun­ty Elections)

Above, we have a sam­ple bal­lot for Seat­tle. As you can see, the first item on it is the elec­tion for King Coun­ty Asses­sor, fol­lowed by one for Elec­tions Direc­tor. These posi­tions are both being con­test­ed for three-year terms thanks to the suc­cess of NPI’s char­ter amend­ment to move elec­tions for coun­ty-lev­el posi­tions in King Coun­ty to even-num­bered years, a tran­si­tion which will be com­plete in 2028.

In addi­tion to elect­ing sev­en city coun­cilmem­bers, Seat­tle vot­ers will decide the fate of a hous­ing levy, and you can see that levy at the top of the final column.

2023 King Coun­ty gen­er­al elec­tion sam­ple bal­lot (Espanol, pro­vid­ed by King Coun­ty Elections)

Above is the same sam­ple bal­lot for Seat­tle except in Span­ish rather than English.

2023 King Coun­ty gen­er­al elec­tion sam­ple bal­lot (Eng­lish, Red­mond, pro­vid­ed by King Coun­ty Elections)

Next, we have a sam­ple bal­lot for Red­mond, NPI’s home­town. As with the Seat­tle one, every­thing fits on one page. Every­thing on the bal­lot is a real can­di­date elec­tion — there is no anti-tax adver­tis­ing. There’s noth­ing that does­n’t belong.

And now, let’s do a before and after com­par­i­son. The image on the left depicts what we dubbed the “Eymal­lot” from 2019: a bal­lot that was just loaded with right wing pro­pa­gan­da. There was so much of it that not a sin­gle can­di­date elec­tion appeared on the front side in King Coun­ty. Con­trast that with this year’s bal­lot: every­thing fits on one page and every item is for a real election.

Some­times, as the say­ing goes, less is more. In addi­tion to mak­ing vot­ing eas­i­er in Wash­ing­ton, we are sav­ing mil­lions of dol­lars by not hav­ing any push polls on our bal­lots. For the small num­ber of peo­ple who came to leg­isla­tive hear­ings this past win­ter at Tim Eyman’s urg­ing, argu­ing that “advi­so­ry votes” are use­ful for track­ing rev­enue bills, we have good news for you: you can still track rev­enue bills act­ed on by the Leg­is­la­ture, 24/7/365, using our leg­is­la­tion’s fis­cal dash­board.

And not just the bills that raised tax­es, but the ones that raised fees, too!

Wash­ing­ton vot­ers, we hope you enjoy the expe­ri­ence of hav­ing a push poll-free bal­lot this Novem­ber as much as we enjoyed bring­ing it to you.

Hap­py voting!