RCV / IRV Update for King County 10/04/08

Dear IRVWA:

I wanted to let you know that I have introduced legislation to adopt the recent recommendation of the King County Charter Review Commission to study instant runoff voting. The King County Council is expected to hear and possibly take action on this issue on Monday, October 6, 2008, at the regularly scheduled 1:30 Council meeting.

As you know, the Charter Review Commission recommended that the Council convene a citizen’s committee to complete a study on instant runoff voting. The Commission put considerable effort into establishing its recommendations, and this legislation would task the Citizen’s Election Oversight Committee with examining whether instant runoff voting has a place in future King County Elections. The legislation requests that a written report documenting the advantages and disadvantages of instant runoff voting be presented to the Council no later than January 2, 2010.

The Council will be accepting public comment on this issue at its meeting on Monday. However, please note that Monday’s agenda also includes possible action on the County’s Comprehensive Plan which is scheduled to be heard first, and expected to take approximately two hours.

Please feel free to pass this information along to your membership. If you have questions or additional feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me at bob.ferguson@kingcounty.gov
or (206) 296-1001.

Sincerely,

Bob Ferguson
King County Councilmember
Metropolitan King County Council, District 1
516 3rd Avenue, Room 1200
Seattle, WA 98104
ph: (206) 296-1001 | fx: (206) 296-0198
For more information: http://www.kingcounty.gov/ferguson
Visit our website to view the latest District 1 eNews

King County Charter Review is Underway

The King County Charter Review

A charter review only comes around every 10 years. Please don’t miss this opportunity. Our ultimate goal is to get IRV statewide. If both King and Pierce have IRV it would be a much easier next step.

Please look at the schedule of meetings and plan to attend at least one. (Note that they are running behind – the meetings scheduled in January did not take place.)

2007 Legislative Session Underway for IRV Effort

Legislature of WA State To read language of HB 2202 and SB 6000

Allowing ranked choice voting by cities and local taxing districts.

HB 2202
Feb 22 Scheduled for public hearing in the House Committee on Local Government at 8:00 AM.

To listen to the hearing that took place regarding HB 2202 visit TVW's site and the hearing is at the end of the audio file for this day.

I noticed that the chair was very short with the testifiers and that HB 2202 was heard last on the docket that day and the time that was given for the hearing was very short. I would hope in the future there is more time for this bill and that the chair is more courteous to the testifiers.

Companion Bill: SB 6000
Feb 26 Scheduled for public hearing in the Senate Committee on Government Operations & Elections at 10:00 AM. (Subject to change)

Lobby for HB 1335 & SB 5326

[ACTION alert]

IRVWA recommends you begin to lobby your legislators and senator to adopt ...

HB 1335 - http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=31861

SB 5326 - http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=31860

House Bill 1335 : Introduced by Rep. Hans Dunshee on January 20, 2005, to provide home rule charter cities the ability to choose their election system. See companion SB 5326.

If these two companion bills are passed, and become law, Vancouver, WA will have authority to implement IRV elections for the city which was approved at an earlier election in Vancouver. Other cities may also then adopt IRV elections, if they choose to do so.

Please find your Senators at this list

Find your Legislators at this list

Email or write your representatives to get these bills approved in committee, then approved in the Legislature and Senate.

Final list of sponsors

[update]

From: Brent White
Date: Thu Jan 20, 2005 11:46 pm
Subject: Final list of sponsors

Hi folks,

Thanks to the hundreds of calls to Olympia y'all made the past two days, the sponsorhip lists on HB 1335 and SB 5326 grew a little.

The final list of sponsors for HB 1335 is:
HANS DUNSHEE
Toby Nixon
Al O'Brien
Fred Jarrett
Geoff Simpson
Jim Moeller
Bill Fromhold
Timm Ormsby
Maralyn Chase
Sherry Appleton
Dawn Morrell
Judy Clibborn
Ruth Kagi
Lynn Kessler
Tami Green
Jeff Morris
Bob Hasegawa
Jim Dunn
Shay Schual-Berke
Phyllis Kenney
Alex Wood
Mary Lou Dickerson
Joe McDermott

That's 23 altogether! Great job! If one or both of your representatives is listed here, they would certainly be delighted to receive notes of thanks.Their email addresses are listed at http://www.leg.wa.gov/email/members/Default.aspx?Chamber=H

HB 1335 has been referred to the House Local Government Committee, where Chairman Geoff Simpson will decide whether and when to give it a hearing. The fact that Rep. Simpson is a co-sponsor is obviously a good sign. He, too, deserves some notes of thanks, especially from those in the south KingCounty area, as well as those of you in Vancouver, with an expressed hope that the bill will get a speedy hearing.

The final list of sponsors for SB 5326 is:
JEANNE KOHL-WELLES
Craig Pridemore
Luke Esser
Adam Kline
Brian Weinstein
Erik Poulsen
Bill Finkbeiner
Rosemary McAuliffe
Karen Keiser
Harriet Spanel

That makes 10 sponsors on the senate bill. Not shabby at all. Again, notes of thanks to your senator (if she or he signed on) are good. Email addresses are at http://www.leg.wa.gov/email/members/Default.aspx?Chamber=S

SB 5326 has been referred to the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee, chaired by Jim Kastama. If you live in the Pierce County area (or Vancouver), it is time to start emailing Sen. Kastama, thank him for his past support for IRV, and asking him to give SB 5326 a speedy hearing.

Thanks everyone! -- especially phone bankers Taryn Gearhart, Nikki Monacelli, Jody Haug, Tom Mull, Paul McClintock, and Maynard Eyestone.

Cheers, Brent White
Legislative Coordinator, IRV-WA
206-977-0450