* Proposed charter amendment filed 6/26/17

* Letter to proponent transmitting ballot title, 6/30/17

* Letter to King County Elections transmitting ballot title, 6/30/17

* Letter from proponent withdrawing petition.

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FairVote Washington: City of Seattle Proposed Charter Amendment No __ concerns _______

Please return signed petitions to or contact us at:

FairVote Washington

2534 34th Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144

tel.: (206) 384-3787

e-mail: info@fairvotewa.org

CHARTER AMENDMENT PETITION FOR SUBMISSION TO THE SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL

To the City Council of The City of Seattle: We, the undersigned registered voters of The City of Seattle, State of Washington, propose and ask for the amendment to the Seattle City Charter known as Charter Amendment Measure No. ______, entitled:

THE CITY OF SEATTLE PROPOSED CHARTER AMENDMENT NUMBER ____

[ballot title to be supplied by Seattle City Attorney]

Should this measure be enacted into law?

Yes ?

No ?

a full, true and correct copy of which is included herein, and we petition the Council to present said proposed Charter Amendment to the qualified electors of The City of Seattle for approval or rejection at the next general municipal election occurring in accordance with Article XX, Section 2 of the City Charter; and each of us for himself or herself says: I have personally signed this petition; I am a registered voter of The City of Seattle, State of Washington, and my residence address is correctly stated.

WARNING: Every person who signs this petition with any other than his or her true name, or who knowingly signs more than one of these petitions, or signs a petition seeking an election when he or she is not a legal voter, or signs a petition when he or she is otherwise not qualified to sign, or who makes herein any false statement, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. In addition, it is unlawful for any person: 1. To sign or decline to sign any petition for a City initiative, referendum, or Charter amendment, in exchange for any consideration or gratuity or promise thereof; or 2. To give or offer any consideration or gratuity to anyone to induce him or her to sign or not to sign a petition for a City initiative, referendum, or Charter amendment; or 3. To interfere with or attempt to interfere with the right of any voter to sign or not to sign a petition for a City initiative, referendum, or Charter amendment by threat, intimidation or any other corrupt means or practice; or 4. To sign any City of Seattle initiative, referendum, or Charter amendment knowing that he or she is not a registered voter of The City of Seattle. Any violation of paragraphs 1, 2, 3, or 4 shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $500 or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. (Seattle Ordinance 94289, SMC 2.08.040, RCW 35.21.005).

(*Only Registered Seattle Voters Can Sign This Petition*)

Petitioner's Signature Printed Name Residence Address

(Street/Zip) Date

Signed

Sample Joan Q. Public Joan Q. Public 2017 Seattle Blvd, 98100 July 5, 2017

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Charter Amendment: The People of the City of Seattle, exercising their power to amend the City Charter by popular vote under Article XX, Section 2 of the City Charter enact the following amendments to the Charter of the City of Seattle.

Section 1. A new Section 5 is added to the City Charter, Article XVIII, as follows:

ARTICLE XVIII, ELECTIONS.

Sec. 5. RANKED CHOICE VOTING

Primary elections for all elective officers of The City of Seattle shall be conducted by ranked choice voting. Beginning in the first election cycle taking place after it is determined, in the opinion of the City Attorney, that state law permits the City to eliminate its use of primary elections and adopt ranked choice voting to determine which candidates will be elected in a single round of voting, then the city will not conduct any primary election, but will instead elect its offices in a single election conducted by ranked choice voting. In that case, the same method described in Article XVIII, Section 5, Subdivision C will be used, except that in any round in which two or fewer candidates remain, the candidate with the most votes will be elected to the office.

Section 2: A new Subdivision A is added to the City Charter, Article XVIII, Section 5, as follows:

ARTICLE XVIII, ELECTIONS.

SEC. 5. Subdivision A. RANKED CHOICE VOTING DEFINED

"Ranked choice voting" means the method of casting and tabulating votes in a primary election in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, tabulation proceeds in sequential rounds in which last-place candidates are defeated and the two candidates with the most votes in the final round advance to the general election.

Section 3: A new Subdivision B is added to the City Charter, Article XVIII, Section 5, as follows:

ARTICLE XVIII, ELECTIONS.

SEC. 5. Subdivision B. FORM OF BALLOT

In any contest conducted by ranked choice voting, the ballot shall allow voters to rank candidates in order of choice. Additionally, it shall meet the following specifications:

(1) The ballot shall be simple and easy to understand.

(2) If feasible, the ballot shall allow voters to rank every listed candidate in a contest. If it is not feasible to allow voters to rank that number of candidates, the number of allowable rankings may be limited to no fewer than 6.

Section 4: A new Subdivision C is added to the City Charter, Article XVIII, Section 5, as follows:

ARTICLE XVIII, ELECTIONS.

SEC. 5. Subdivision C. RANKED CHOICE VOTING

(1) Tabulation.

In any contest conducted by ranked choice voting, each validly cast ballot shall be initially counted as one vote for the candidate at its highest continuing ranking or as an exhausted ballot. Tabulation proceeds in rounds. Each round shall proceed sequentially as follows:

a. If two or fewer continuing candidates remain, the remaining candidates advance to the general election and the tabulation is complete. Otherwise, the tabulation continues to subdivision C(1)(b).

b. The candidate with the fewest votes is defeated. Votes for the defeated candidate shall cease counting for the defeated candidate and shall be added to the totals of each ballot's next-ranked continuing candidate or counted as exhausted ballots, and a new round begins with subdivision C(1)(a).

(2) Batch Elimination.The tabulation described in subdivision C(1) may optionally be augmented to include batch elimination. If batch elimination is included, then immediately prior to tabulation proceeding to subdivision C(1)(b), all candidates who can be mathematically eliminated, if any, shall be defeated by batch elimination and votes for the defeated candidates shall cease counting for those candidates and be added to the totals of each ballot's highest-ranked continuing candidate or counted as exhausted ballots. If no candidates are defeated by batch elimination in a round, the tabulation shall continue to subdivision C(1)(b). If candidates are defeated by batch elimination, a new round begins with subdivision C(1)(a).

(3) Ties.Election officials shall resolve prospective ties between candidates before the election by publicly determining a randomized ordering of the alphabet. If a tie to determine which candidate has the fewest votes occurs at any point in the tabulation procedure described in subdivision C(1), and tabulation cannot proceed until the tie is resolved, then the tied candidate who is considered to have the fewest votes shall be the candidate whose name appears earliest on the list of candidate names arranged, last name first, in accordance with this randomized alphabet.

(4) Definitions.For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:

a. "Batch elimination" means a simultaneous defeat of one or more continuing candidates that can be mathematically eliminated.

b. "Can be mathematically eliminated" means a candidate is part of a group of candidates such that:

i. if a candidate is in the group, then every continuing candidate with equal or fewer votes is also in the group;

ii. the total votes for all candidates in the group is less than the number of votes for any continuing candidate not in the group;

iii. there are at least two continuing candidates not in the group.

c. "Continuing candidate" means any candidate that has not been defeated or elected.

d. "Exhausted ballot" means a ballot that is not counted for any continuing candidate for one or more of the following reasons:

i. It does not rank any continuing candidates;

ii. its highest continuing ranking contains an overvote; or

iii. it includes two or more consecutive skipped rankings prior to its highest continuing ranking.

e. "Highest continuing ranking" means the highest ranking for any continuing candidate on a ballot that is not an exhausted ballot.

f. "Overvote" means a voter has ranked more than one candidate at the same ranking.

g. "Ranking" means the number assigned by a voter to a candidate to express the voter's choice for that candidate. A ranking of "1" is the highest ranking followed by "2" and then "3" and so on.

h. "Round" means an instance of the sequence of voting tabulation beginning with subdivision C(1)(a) of this section.

i. "Skipped ranking" means a voter has left a ranking blank and ranks a candidate at a subsequent ranking.

Sponsor Information: FairVote Washington

2534 34th Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144

tel.: (206) 384-3787

e-mail: info@fairvotewa.org