King County August 2009 Primary

King County's bill for its share of the August primary costs will likely exceed $1 million again this year. There are even fewer jurisdictions participating in the primary this year than in 2007. Thus, there are fewer jurisdictions over which to spread the cost. By adopting Ranked Choice Voting, King County can eliminate this cost to their taxpayers for years to come. In addition, by having RCV capability in place, this would allow entities such as the Port of Seattle to save money as well.

The August 2009 primary in King County will feature races for county level offices, the Port of Seattle, 15 city councils, 4 school districts and 2 fire districts. (The Port races feature candidates Rob Holland, David Doud, Al Yuen, Juan Paraiso, Max Vekich, Tom Albro, and Robert Walker.) This is a total of 23 jurisdictions as compared to 35 in the 2007 primary.

Since there are fewer entities sharing the costs this year, King County will be getting a higher allocation. However, there may be some cost savings associated with closing the polls down. The resulting costs for the county will still be over $1 million for the primary.

The cost savings of RCV primarily come from eliminating elections. For King County, due to its size plus holding elections in odd-numbered years, the savings over time would be substantial.