Consider that it is easier to vote in Washington state than anywhere in the country – the government sends you a ballot three weeks before every election, provides painfully clear instructions in multiple languages on how to fill the ballot out, and provides a (postage paid) envelope to return your vote. However, Shift has long covered, the Democrats’ always try to use their majorities to tilt elections even further to their advantage.

So, when the Seattle Times catches a Far-Left Democrat state representative saying we need to change local elections from odd-numbered years because it’s “incumbent upon us to make voting as accessible as possible,” you know this has nothing to do with accessibility. How much more “accessible” can they be?

Instead, Democrats want to change local elections to even-numbered years, when they can count on their least-informed and least-motivated voters to maybe show up. One bill sponsor suggests it’s a “smart way to make sure, proven by data, that two and three times more people will definitely vote,” which is statistically impossible if the representative was forced to do the math on her statement.

Read on to see how even the Democrat Secretary of State thinks this Democrat bill is a bad idea, because moving to all “even-year elections would burden elections officials with more work on an uneven schedule, leading to staffing challenges, rather than spreading out elections annually.”… Shift, Seattle Times.

Another twist has been tangled in the ongoing debate over the fate of the four Lower Snake River dams and Democrat efforts to tear them out. That’s the news from the Tri-City Herald, which writes that the “Bonneville Power Administration is being challenged in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after it signed an agreement that’s being called a roadmap for breaching the Snake River dams in Eastern Washington. A petition for the court to review the agreement was filed by the Public Power Council, which represents consumer-owned electric utilities relying on Columbia and Snake River hydropower. “

The public power folks told the court they are “concerned that the memorandum of understanding signed by BPA Administrator John Hairston has the potential to result in cost increases or grid reliability issues.” You can read on to see that the only sure result of the Inslee/Biden dam removal plan is that it will cost ratepayers across the state more money… Tri-City Herald.

The Seattle Times editorial board pointed out a political reality that is a chief weakness of the state’s Long-Term Care program – “the proponents of the mandatory long-term care plan for Washington employees seemed more fixated on being the first state in the nation to create such a plan than on implementing sound policy, assessing whether it was needed or residents even wanted it.”

Now that the state’s “first-in-the-nation” plan has foundered on the rocks, voters will decide whether to make the plan optional this fall. That leads the Times to suggest “Democrats should hold hearings on I-2024, having the public conversation about its merits and the obviously slow-walked efforts to fix its well documented flaws.” Beyond that advice, the Times points out “(H)earings would give the public a chance to hear the pros and cons of a plan that affects their wallets and possible health care and the possible program benefit total of $36,500 in today’s dollars for long-term care and support services.”… Seattle Times.

The day after Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the dean of Washington state’s congressional delegation after 20 years of representing the Spokane-dominated Fifth District, announced she would not seek re-election, the accolades – and warnings – came from all quarters. The Spokesman-Review understandably had the most in-depth coverage, writing Rep. McMorris Rodgers “announcement that she planned to retire at the end of her current term surprised local politicians still processing what her departure will mean for the region and this year’s election season.”

One of the more telling comments came from Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle, who noted that “with the fights over (the Lower Snake River) dams right now, it was important to have Cathy in that position, and I don’t know what it means for the area now that she’s leaving.” Read on to see why many share his worry that “Cathy is well respected and high up in Congress, and that’s not something you replace overnight” here… Spokesman-Review.

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