Ranked choice voting graphic, Pierce County Washington

Ranked choice voting graphic, Pierce County Washington
Originally uploaded by rllayman

This graphic is from the Tacoma (Washington) News-Tribune. I didn't know that they had ranked choice voting until I read Tuesday's paper. The graphic isn't available online, but the artist, Fred Matamoros, was kind enough to provide me with a copy of the original (which appeared on A10 of the printed paper.)

I'll write more about this later.

Interestingly, in the Tuesday Detroit News there was an op-ed about how Detroit needs to move from a system where all councilmembers are elected at large to a mix of wards/districts and at large representatives. The author suggests that a majority of the positions be district-based, I aver that a majority of the positions should be at-large, because the pressures of parochialism are too significant and city-wide concerns get lost. (See "Reform how Detroiters choose the City Council.")

Except for the fact that having more representatives scares me, I wonder if having more councilmembers and/or more, smaller wards in DC would be a step in the right direction. Perhaps it could be along the lines of Portland, where Commissioners run for specific portfolios, such as Transportation and in turn the Commissioner oversees that agency and related matters.