An initiative aimed at changing the way Seattle voters choose candidates has been eligible to vote in November.
Initiative 134 aims to introduce the “affirmative vote” into the Seattle primary, where voters will choose the candidate they favour, rather than just one candidate. As today, the two candidates with the most votes will still enter the general election
An example of what voting wording might be. (Seattle approved photo)
I-134 was submitted in January by the “Seattle approval” campaign led by several senior figures in Seattle’s scientific and technological community. They need to collect more than 26000 signatures in the first half of this year.
St. Louis and Fargo, N.C., in St. Louis have begun to use approval voting. The system won the support of 68% of voters in november2020 and was successfully used four months later.
According to Seattle approvals, more representative leaders are approved to vote than our current voting system. It has also eliminated vote splits and enabled voters to be more honest about their true support for each candidate.
Loganbowers, CO chairman of Seattle approvals, said: “if you have ever had a debate between voting for a candidate you really like and another candidate you don’t like but have a lot of financial support, you have experienced the problem of our current election.”.
Bowles is the founder of a start-up company and a former employee of Amazon. He ran for the Seattle City Council in 2019. He added: “the money flowing to the election, coupled with the shortcomings of our current voting system, means that our election is not a fair assessment of what voters want. Voters often feel that they must vote strategically based on who they think can win.”
Troydavis, another veteran of technology and the founder of the Seattle approval movement, said that if passed in November, i-134 might even take effect before the 2023 election.
“I’m glad that ordinary people can really improve the system,” Davis said. “We are not political insiders or staff of special interest groups. We are just ordinary voters who hope Seattle will prosper and develop in the next 20 years.”
The technological background of Seattle parliamentary leaders has influenced how they carry out electoral reform.
“I’m glad that ordinary people can really improve the system.”
Evanradkoff, a former Amazon engineer, told geekwire earlier: “for me, this background encourages me to think about how the system works.”. “We are used to citizen participation. This is just for the next election cycle. But how do we hope to conduct elections for decades?”
Davis believes that other countries in the United States are beginning to pay attention, and approval voting may become a new normal.
“Because this change is simple to implement and easy to understand voters’ preferences, city and county councils across the country are likely to consider making the same change,” Davis said. “In most jurisdictions, the Council can simply adopt it without waiting for an initiative, a lengthy implementation process, or even a change in its constitution.”