The Columbian’s editorial on the proposed bill in Olympia to lower the 60 percent vote for school funding raises questions (“55% OK for school bond measures reasonable,” In Our View, Jan. 27).
I was told that school advocates wanted a separate election date for school funding. That was in hope to get only their supporters to bother to vote, thus ensuring its passage. Opponents to a special date for that issue insisted that if that was to be the case, then 60 percent would be needed for passage.
So that is how an election early in the year came about.
Why not have school funding on the general election ballot and have passage be at 50 percent plus one? We would save a lot of money by not having an election at the beginning of the year on a single issue. And a simple majority is a good standard to stick with. Plus, for the people concerned about voter turnout, the general election ballot has the highest turnout.
Two years ago, the citizens of Clark County, in a landslide vote, properly rejected the liberal scheme of ranked choice voting. Reports of mandatory voting laws are now being heard in Olympia. Heaven help us.
Let’s reject all manipulations to voting so that we can trust the outcome of our elections.
