The voting and turnout maps in city council elections tell a story. Precincts with apartments on bus lines more progressive. Precincts of single family homes with views more conservative.
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Conversation
If we want a more progressive city, maybe we should end the apartment ban and invest in more transit? The voting base of 6 of the 7 winners probably wants more affordable housing and better transit. Seems like a mandate that the city council should act on.
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The turnout maps tell a story too. View home precincts reliably turn out, apartment precincts not as much. Odd year elections privilege conservative voters. Imagine if we held elections in high turnout even years? Shaun Scott probably wins.
For years, odd-year elections in Seattle have operated similarly to the way the electoral college operates nationally. It disproportionally favors the voices of more conservative voters, skewing what is politically possible. The same is true in cities and towns across the state
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Groups that care about voter turnout (and ) should support changing state law that requires odd-year local elections. We have otherwise great voting laws, but odd year elections is our hidden anti-democratic local voter suppression law.
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Calling odd year elections a voter suppression law may sound extreme. But that's the history. It's is the result of a hundred year old national "reform" movement to separate city mayors from their then robust immigrant voting base. Still works that way (see e.g, S. King county).
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Nevada did it, so can we.
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Nevada's Dem-led state government passed a bipartisan law earlier this year to require elections for local office be held at the same time as federal elections, & states like Washington could follow suit dailykos.com/stories/2019/6
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Senator Joe Nguyen tells us there will be a bill to address odd-year local elections in the next legislation session.
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Replying to @BrettHamil @SenSaldana and 2 others
There will be legislation on this next year.
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I still think Cathy Tuttle not making it past the primaries is worth talking about.
