2007 Primary Waste of Money

The August 2007 primary ballot for Gig Harbor residents has one (1) race for Port Commissioner on it. If the Port District was using ranked choice voting to elect its commissioners, the Port and the County could have saved the entire cost of the August primary for the Gig Harbor area and many others. Postage, printing, poll workers, etc. would be saved.



During the 2007 legislative session, the legislature considered SB-6000 which would have allowed local jurisdictions in Pierce County to use Instant Runoff Voting (or Ranked Choice Voting) to elect their officials. My primary ballot is a good example of why the legislature should pass SB-6000 during the 2008 session.

Pierce County is in the process of acquiring the software to run ranked choice voting elections. The more times we use this software, the more cost effective it becomes. This primary gives us an example of the potential cost savings if we extend the usage of ranked choice voting.