Proposed changes to Washington elections stall out in Olympia

Efforts from state lawmakers to make changes to Washington’s elections have officially fallen short this legislative session, with a trio of high-profile bills all failing to advance out of their respective chambers ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.

Washington weighs significant changes to how (and when) it votes in 2022

Perhaps the most prominent of the proposals floated in Olympia this session came from Gov. Jay Inslee, who pushed for a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor for elected leaders and candidates for office to spread unfounded allegations of voter fraud.

Inslee first proposed the bill on the one-year anniversary of the now-infamous Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, calling lies about election fraud a “threat to our democracy” that persist to this day, both in Washington state and across the country. While the governor insisted the measure was crafted with input from Constitutional scholars, opponents cited concerns over potential First Amendment violations, and whether it ultimately would pass muster in the face of a potential legal challenge had it passed.

The bill — sponsored in the Legislature by Democratic state Sen. David Frockt — was passed out of committee in early February, but failed to come up for a vote in front of the full Senate.

Also failing to advance this session was a bill — SB 5584 — that would have allowed cities in Washington to implement ranked-choice voting (RCV) for local elections.

Would Inslee bill making it illegal to lie about election fraud survive a court challenge?

RCV allows voters to list their favorite candidates in order of preference. On the tabulation side, if any one person garners 50% of the first-place votes, the election is over and that candidate wins. In the event there’s no majority winner, ballots are put through an automated runoff, starting from the candidate who received the fewest first-place votes. Proponents claim that RCV helps eliminate negative partisanship in elections, while encouraging candidates to form broad coalitions and appeal to a wider base of voters.

Similar to Gov. Inslee’s bill, SB 5584 made it out of committee before stalling out in the next phase.

Rounding out the trio of election related bills was HB 1727, which would have moved most state and city elections to even years, excepting votes on levies, tax increases, recalls, and special elections to fill unexpired terms for departing members of Congress. The bill was passed out of the state House’s Governmental & Tribal Relations Committee in January, but never came up for a full vote.

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