Another argument for RCV
There are eight candidates on the primary ballot for Washington State Secretary of State, two Democrats (including the recently appointed incumbent, a former legislator, Steve Hobbs, and Marquez Tiggs who strongly advocates for the state to go back to in person voting); one Nonpartisan, Julie Anderson; one who “Prefers America First (R) Party”; one who “Prefers Union Party”; and three who identify simply as Republicans.
The office of Secretary of State has drawn a lot of interest as a position of importance to the conduct of elections as the Republican Party continues to ride the discredited claims of election fraud of a certain former President. Those riding the discredited claims all identify themselves by terms like “restoring election integrity” or “restoring voter confidence in elections” while quietly admitting that they don’t believe that widespread voter fraud occurs in Washington State. They want to ride Trump’s Big Lie into the office of Secretary of State to fix a system they admit isn’t broken. Worse, they propose expensive new overriding audits without offering an intelligent analysis of how the current Washington State elections system even works.
No one on the August 2nd Primary ballot, except long term Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson, has significant experience in elections administration.
In statewide elections in Washington State Democratic incumbents (even if freshly appointed) tend to have an electoral edge. Considering that, it seems likely that Steve Hobbs will gain one of the two “top-two” primary positions to appear on the November General Election ballot.
I want to see Julie Anderson as a strong “top two” primary finisher.
- As Pierce County’s Auditor, Julie brings more than a decade of experience running fair, transparent elections, and she is the only candidate in this race with elections experience.
- She’s endorsed by the bulk of our state’s County Auditors – Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Auditors are the people who run our elections; they know Julie, and they have confidence in her leadership.
- She’s running as a nonpartisan, because she is committed to keeping politics out of elections. (In Pierce Co. the County Auditor is a non-partisan position—Pierce is a “home rule charter county”.)
- And Julie Anderson supports ranked-choice voting (read Julie’s RCV issue paper). As the only candidate in this race with experience as an election official, she is the only candidate who has considered how Ranked Choice Voting would be properly implemented if voters chose to adopt RCV (as they have in Maine and Alaska, and may soon do so in Seattle).
Ironically, if we had already adopted Ranked Choice Voting, voting for Secretary of State in this August Primary Election second-guessing one’s voting strategy would not be required. With RCV I would simply rank Julie Anderson #1 and Steve Hobbs #2, confident that my votes would not support unqualified candidates.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry