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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

WA Bill Would Let Voters Rank Preferred Presidential Primary Candidates

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Tuesday, February 14, 2023   

Supporters of ranked choice voting say the system could improve Washington state's presidential primary elections. A bill in Olympia would create a ranked system in which candidates are ranked by a voter's preference.

Stephanie Houghton, managing director of FairVote Washington, said the measure, which her group supports, would alleviate a problem caused when voters are asked to vote early, including in primaries.

"Unfortunately, if you did that in the 2020 primary, you were punished, possibly, because your vote was cast for someone who then dropped out," Houghton said. "There are no re-dos."

Houghton said voters in the 2020 Democratic primary later expressed regret that their vote did not matter. Washington state's Democratic and Republican primaries were in March in 2020, more than a month after the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the country. In 2022, Seattle voters approved a measure to bring ranked choice voting to city primary elections.

Houghton said after the primaries, the ranked choice ballots would be in the hands of the parties to decide what to do with them, and added as it stands now, people have to strategize about which candidate is going to be viable by the time the primary gets to their state.

"Instead of just saying, 'My favorite candidate is blank. I'm going to vote for that person. If they don't make the threshold set by the party, I would like my vote to go toward this second person.' Same for the third," she said.

She added the state would join a host of other states that used ranked choice voting in primaries and caucuses in 2020, including Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas and Wyoming. Maine is joining those states in 2024. The bill would have to be passed by the House State Government and Tribal Relations committee by Friday to stay in play this legislative session.


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