Inside the editorial page

What's on the minds of TNT editorial writers

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

Posted by David Seago @ 05:00:27 am

When Pierce County holds its first ranked choice voting election, will The News Tribune also rank candidates in its endorsements?

That's going to be something new for our editorial board. We haven't formally discussed it yet. A lot depends on the fate of three RCV-related county charter amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Let's assume Proposed Charter Amendment No. 4 fails. That's the one that would delay RCV until November 2010. If RCV is used in the 2008 general election, as voters decreed last year, voters will probably get to rank only their top three choices.

OK, I can live with that. No matter how large the field of candidates for any office – county executive, county council, assessor-treasurer, sheriff and auditor – we would rank only our top three choices, just as the voters would.

Proposed Charter Amendment No. 5 would limit ranking to the top three choices for each office, both in 2008 and in the future. Proposed Charter Amendment No. 6, however, would require that voters be allowed to rank all the candidates in each race – WHEN suitable tabulation software is available. Right now it's considered unlikely the software would be available for the 2008 general election.

So let's assume that voters won't get to rank all candidates until 2010. Now what?
Say four, five, six or more candidates seek the same office. If the voters are expected to rank them all, shouldn't the editorial board do the same?

Seems right. But personally, I don't look forward to having to render an opinion on which poor candidate in a field of, say, six candidates is the worst of the bunch. That's a pretty hard knock.

That might be one point in favor of just ranking three in each race. Simpler for the voters, too. We'll be looking at the pros and cons of that when the ed board decides its stance on Amendments 5 and 6.

All this sounds a bit like "who's on first?" doesn't it?

Categories: How we work, Taking notice • 1 comment

COMMENTS:

Comment by scottliberty @ 16:36 - Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

You have the right to drink mad dog 20/20, but that does not obligate you to do so.

For decades third party candidates (like Bruce Guthrie for example) were deserving of a vote but received next to none due to that wasted vote myth. People who really wanted to vote for Bruce above all others were afraid they would end up with Mike or Maria. They ended up voting their fears instead of their values, regardless of how much sacrifice was made to get Mr. Guthrie's message out.

CRV will allow all of those voters to put Bruce as #1 and then Mike or Maria #2 knowing that both votes be counted.

I would suggest only ranking the candidates that you sincerely think are capable and qualified to do the job. If the editorial board only feels one candidate among seven is worth voting for??? Just rank that person #1 and move to the next race.

The easiest thing to do would be to rank based on the same criteria that you use in a regular 'winner take all election'. Review the issues and the candidate: What experience do they have political and otherwise? What is their campaign about? Are they sensible or off their rocker? How informed are they about the seat they are seeking to fill? How much community service do they involve themselves in?

I think that this dynamic of voting will bring back some of the excitement to the election process.

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Inside the editorial page

Inside the editorial page

This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher Cheryl Dell and Executive Editor David Zeeck.

Contributing bloggers

Editorial page editor David Seago joined The News Tribune in 1967. He oversees the daily editorial and letters pages and the Sunday Insight section. E-mail him at david.seago@thenewstribune.com.

Chief editorial writer Patrick O’Callahan came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. He writes the editorial board’s annual civic agenda published at the beginning of each year. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com

Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. She is responsible for day-to-day production of the editorial and op-ed pages and editing letters to the editor. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.

Editorial writer Kim Bradford joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. She manages this blog. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.