Should an electoral college pick WA’s next governor? This Tri-Cities lawmaker says so

A Tri-Cities lawmaker wants to cut King County’s grip on the governor’s seat.

Rep. Brad Klippert has filed a bill to switch from the popular vote to using an electoral college system to pick the Washington state governor.

“The issue is that a whole lot of people feel like their ballot doesn’t count,” the Kennewick legislator told the Tri-City Herald. “I want 100 percent of registered voters to vote.”

He believes many Eastern Washington residents don’t vote in statewide races because of the dominance of King, Pierce and Snohomish county voters.

Those three counties accounted for 1.3 million, or more than half, of the votes cast for Gov. Jay Inslee in November 2020.

Only 12 of the state’s 39 counties supported Inslee over his Republican challenger, Loren Culp. And east of the Cascades, just Whitman County supported Inslee.

Klippert’s proposal, House Bill 1014, would create a system modeled after the Electoral College used to choose the U.S. president.

But at least one state and municipal law expert in Seattle called the proposal flat-out unconstitutional.

Electoral college

The plan would take 147 electoral votes and divide them among the 39 counties based on the results of the U.S. Census. A candidate would need at least 74 votes to win.

Each county would get at least one elector, and the state’s redistricting committee would divide the rest based on population using the “method of equal proportions.” This the same system used for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He believes it would make the elections more fair for people in rural areas of Eastern Washington. The current system is not equitable, he argues.

Klippert believes the new system would change a more than 40-year trend of Democratic governors.

The move is being met with support from Benton County Republicans. But others claim it’s simply a way for Republicans to avoid the popular vote and is coming at the same time as a growing dissatisfaction with the Electoral College at the national level.

The Associated Press reported that 15 states have signed onto the National Popular Vote movement where the presidential candidate with the most votes nationally would get those states’ electoral votes.

Constitutional problems

While Klippert believes using an electoral college is the best way for an equitable election, it’s not likely to survive a legal challenge, said Hugh Spitzer a University of Washington professor with a 35-year history in state and municipal law.

The law could face a legal uphill battle even if it gets out of committee, Spitzer said.

A 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision set a precedent that in nearly every election every eligible person gets a vote.

There are a few exceptions, such as irrigation districts and the presidential election, but in other cases, everyone’s vote needs to be weighed equally.

“The only reason we have the Electoral College is because the (U.S.) Constitution says so,” Spitzer said.

He said under Klippert’s proposal voters in rural counties would be given a bigger vote than voters in urban counties..

The federal precedent was used as recently as 1990 when a group of voters challenged the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle more commonly known as Metro, which operated a regional sewage treatment system and created a bus system.

The problem was that voters in five communities, including Seattle, had more power in picking the governing council that ran Metro.

The state Legislature’s session starts Jan 11 and consideration of Klippert’s bill will start in the House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee.

The electoral college bill is one of 10 that Klippert has prefiled for the 2021 legislative session.

Another piece of legislation would limit the governor’s emergency orders to 30 days without legislative approval and stems from criticism of Inslee’s restrictions on businesses during the COVID pandemic.

He also is proposing one that prevents state agencies from requiring vaccinations, such as the COVID-19 and MMR vaccines.

This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.