OLYMPIA — After four unsuccessful attempts by lawmakers in past sessions, sponsors of a state Voting Rights Act remain optimistic about action this year.
An amended version of House Bill 1745 to enact a state Voting Rights Act passed out of the Senate’s Committee on Government Operations & Security on Feb. 2 and is awaiting a possible floor vote in the Senate. The bill cleared the House on a party-line 50-47 vote Feb. 4.
“This is about making sure that all of our citizens have an electoral system that respects their vote and helps them to elect people from their communities that they choose,” said Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Mountlake Terrace.
Moscoso and the House have tried for years, unsuccessfully, to pass the state version of the federal Voting Rights Act, which aims to provide remedies for minority voters who believe they are being denied adequate opportunities to win elections.
In some cases, the goal is to have district-based elections, rather than at-large general elections.
Compromise bill
The bill has died in the Republican-controlled Senate in previous years, but sponsors and Gov. Jay Inslee are hoping a compromised bill can pass this year.
“I’m optimistic that we have a real shot of getting the Voting Rights Act passed for the people of the state this year,” Inslee said in a news conference.
Moscoso said a lot of the proposal’s recent support has been spurred by the successes of the federal Voting Rights Act’s application to the city of Yakima.
The city was sued in 2012 under the federal law, and the courts determined that the city’s large Latino population had effectively been barred from holding spots on the city council because of the city’s at-large voting system.
Despite making up more than 40 percent of the city’s population, Latino citizens had never been elected to the council.
Following the ruling, Yakima switched to district voting and for the first time elected three Latinas to the city council in the city’s recent election in November.
Moscoso also pointed to the results of Seattle’s recent elections after the city moved to district voting, saying it allowed people of different socioeconomic backgrounds to successfully run for the Seattle City Council.
“It can be a good bipartisan win for good government,” Moscoso said.
“It doesn’t have to be looked at simply as a Democrat or Republican maneuver against the other side.”
This year, the Senate didn’t vote on its companion version of the bill before the deadline for passing bills from their house of origin.
It was placed in the Senate Rules X-File Feb. 25 and is not expected to receive further consideration this session, the same fate it earned at the end of the 2015 session.
Last year, the Senate voted along party lines to not bring the bill to a floor vote after honoring the 1965 March in Selma, Ala., and the 50th anniversary of the federal Voting Rights Act.
For years, there had been a perception that the bill would have a negative impact for local jurisdictions and lead to an increase in litigation against cities.
Recent talks to get the bill passed have included concessions by Democrats that ease some of the concerns of cities that fear the burden of having to pay for lawsuits under the act.
“The perception that this is bad for local governments may have been holding some lawmakers back,” said Shankar Narayan, legislative director for the ACLU of Washington.
The new legislation would simply be a tool to help local jurisdictions comply with the federal law, he said.
Subdivisions
The act would apply to elections held within certain political subdivisions including counties, cities, towns and school districts.
It does not apply to state elections, elections in a city or town with a population under 1,000, or school districts under 250 students.
Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, said the proposal now safeguards municipal entities governed by elected officers from citizens filing a lawsuit under the state act if they are already filing under the federal act, though they can file a federal lawsuit at any point.
“We do have support from a number of cities and counties,” McCoy said.
“If that support is large enough, then we have a big possibility of making it happen.”
Lori Augino, elections director for the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, said the agency has been a proponent of the federal law and supports measures that increase access to voting.
The Secretary of State’s Office also proposed bills this session to automatically register qualified citizens to vote and to preregister 17-year-olds to vote.
“The kind of access that voters in Washington have to the ballot is something you don’t see in other states,” Augino said.
Moscoso said the issue is now in the hands of Senate Republican leadership. If the proposal doesn’t pass, he said, he and lawmakers have no problem pursuing it again.
Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, said she wants to see something passed on the bill but said there’s no way to predict how it will go. Roach is the chair of the committee that passed the amended bill Feb. 25.
“We just have to let it play out. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “But I hope to get a bill.”
McCoy, while optimistic, said he’ll believe the act is real when it makes its way to Inslee’s desk to be signed into law.
“I’m hopeful,” he said. “But then again, I’ve been taken to the altar and gotten left before.”
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This story is part of a series of news reports from the Washington State Legislature provided through a reporting internship sponsored by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. Reach reporter LaVendrick Smith at lavendricksmith@gmail.com.
