Ranked Choice Voting on Ballot Again in Pierce County

This is a piece by Krist Novoselic which appeared in the Daily Weekly.

The Pierce County Council has put Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) on the ballot with the intention that voters will approve its repeal.

I defended the system on KUOW this morning.

In the same radio interview, Pierce County auditor Jan Shabro complained about the extra work and cost of Ranked Choice. At first blush, this might be a concern to taxpayers. However, Ms. Shabro failed to mention the cost of the extra ballot for the August Top-Two primary election.


But these are the status quo talking points - RCV is expensive.

It could be a fair proposition to put this election reform in front of voters again if there were a reasonable assessment before hand. But Pierce County political insiders rushed RCV on the ballot even though there's a credible study of the system in progress. There also needs to be an objective fiscal audit of RCV in comparison with Top-Two elections.

Like I say in the interview - elected leadership hope RCV will wither on the vine. Lawmakers like no-contest or uncontested elections. Competitive elections are a threat to politics-as-usual.

The Seattle Times Ed cetera Blog has another piece on the repeal effort.

RCV, also known as Instant Runoff Voting is in the Los Angeles Times.