Demand action, but no on City Council districtsCredit district-elections proponents for putting a plan for change on the city ballot. At a time when Seattle residents are looking for better government, Charter Amendment 5 offers an alternative.
But Seattle can do better than switching from at-large City Council elections to voting by district. This is change for its own sake, not a plan that promises overall improvements, solves problems or blazes trails.
Seattle residents should say no. Congress and the Legislature, elected by districts, are hardly immune from missteps. Indeed, district or ward elections might just make it easier for special interests to win city favors.
Filling all nine positions at-large makes it in every council member's interest to keep the whole city's needs in mind. That may well be why the city has relatively generous social-service programs. District voting would make each member accountable to one area. But voters would lose any control over the other eight.
We would like more representation for minority views. Yes, we'd even like to see Republican-leaning folks on the council.
But there are other ways that might happen: some form of proportional representation voting, a mix of at-large and district seats, or even a system like the Seattle School Board, where the primary is held within districts but the whole city votes in the general election.
Given the council's unwillingness to look seriously at alternatives, it may be unrealistic to hope the city will pursue any of those options. But a switch to district elections ensures only change, not improvement.
For a change, we recommend the status quo.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.