Markovich: Why are ballot measures so confusing?
Oct 31, 2024, 11:54 AM | Updated: 12:25 pm
Washington ballots are sorted. (File photo: Matt Slocum, AP)
(File photo: Matt Slocum, AP)
Why is it with ballot measures: yes means no and no means yes?
I’m constantly asked by my friends, who think I know something, why are ballot measures so confusing?
They ask me, “If I don’t want a Capital Gains Tax or the Climate Commitment Act, is that a yes or a no vote.”
It’s a very simple question that sadly has no simple answer except for a clue.
As soon as you see the word repeal or remove in the first line of that initiative, it’s the opposite day.
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So a yes vote on I-2117, the Climate Commitment Act, or I-2109 – the Capital Gains Tax – a yes vote means – no, I don’t want it.
Some people think voting no means they don’t want it, but that would be too simple. No means you want to keep it.
A yes vote on I-2124, mean yes, I want the choice to opt out of the long term care tax. It doesn’t get rid of the tax, just ads an opt out.
A no vote means keep the tax as is, no opt out option.
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You have I-2066 where a yes vote means keep natural gas as an energy option in the future.
A no vote means, yes, phase out natural gas. A simpler version would be, a no vote means no natural gas in the future.
I would hope that initiative writers in the future will make it simple for us simpletons of the world, yes means yes, I like it, I want it. I like the Capital Gains Tax. I want to keep Climate Commitment Act and a simple no means, I don’t want it.
Until that happens, it’s opposite day.
Matt Markovich often covers the state legislature and public policy for KIRO Newsradio.
