Bacon leads Port Commissioner primary with 58%

Incumbent Port Commissioner Connie Bacon leads in the early counting for her August primary race with 58% of the vote. Congratulations to Commissioner Bacon!

Too bad the Port was unable to run this race as a RCV race. Bacon would have won a majority of the first choices in a RCV race in November without having a separate primary. A very efficient outcome for the voters.

Too bad the Port had to run an expensive two election process to find out what a RCV race would have found out in one election. About one-third of Pierce County voters had only this one race on their ballot. The Port's bill for the August primary will likely exceed $300,000 for an unneeded election.

Port-Only Primary for Many Voters

The Port of Tacoma will be holding the only countywide primary in Pierce County this August. 146 precincts in the county will receive a primary ballot with only Port Commission Position 1 with candidates Bernardo Tuma, Connie Bacon and Bill Casper on it. This represents 39% of all the precincts in Pierce County.

The 146 precincts had 131,367 registered voters in November 2008. This represented 32% of the total voters in the county.

The Pierce County Auditor race has three candidates (Julie Anderson, Will Baker, Jan Shabro) running, but no August election since the County will be using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for that election. If the Port was using RCV to elect its Commissioners, then these 131,367 voters would have had no primary ballot. The cost of the August primary would have appropriately lower.

Pierce County and the Port of Tacoma

Last week, Pierce County had three candidates (Julie Anderson, Will Baker, and Jan Shabro) file to run for Auditor, but will save the expense of a primary. The Port of Tacoma, a countywide organization, had three candidates (Bernardo Tuma, Connie Bacon and Bill Casper) file to run for one of their Port Commission positions and will receive a bill for having a primary...probably around $350,000.

Pierce County is using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to elect its Auditor. RCV combines the primary and general elections into one election in November. Since the county itself will not participate in the primary, it will not receive a bill for the primary.

The Port of Tacoma has been forced to use a non-partisan Top 2 system to elect its Port Commissioners. Under this system, if more than two candidates file to run for one of the Commissioner positions, the Elections Department will run a primary for the Port and send them a bill for doing so. In 2007, the bill was $327,000. This year it should be slightly more due to fewer jurisdictions sharing the cost of the primary.

The non-partisan Top 2 system penalizes jurisdictions with more candidates and more civic involvement. This is a strange incentive system for political entities. RCV, on average, ends up with more candidates, but does not cost the entity more money for a primary. Using RCV would save the Port significant money which could be used to keep people on the payroll instead of having to lay off as many workers.