After some deliberation, the Yelm City Council approved, on Tuesday, Feb. 13, a new “simple-majority” method of voting to fill the vacant Position 4 seat following Holly Smith’s departure.
Councilor Brian Hess was the sole person who opposed the simple-majority voting change. He claimed a potential three-way tie among the six council votes could cause councilors to “dig their heels in” and halt any sort of progress in appointing a new councilor.
Prior to receiving approval from councilors, Mayor Joe DePinto defined how the simple-majority process would occur for this appointment.
“If this passes, we would do a simple-majority vote,” DePinto said. “We will go down the line, you would all name one applicant, and that person has to receive four (votes) to make it a majority.”
Councilor Tracey Wood was a proponent of the simple-majority method of voting. He said the ranked-choice voting process creates a lot of confusion and doesn’t allow the council to appoint the best candidate.
“I believe we all should have an opportunity to make our choice and then vote on those choices, narrow it down, and then vote on those,” Wood said. “My understanding is that Councilman Hess only picked one candidate in his picking. That’s what I was led to believe. That is, of course, a problem if we’re trying to use ranked voting and not everyone is using it properly.”
DePinto confirmed Wood’s claim, stating the last time ranked-choice voting was used, Hess did not list every candidate listed as required.
“It didn’t impact the vote because it didn’t go far enough, so it didn’t really matter,” DePinto said. “Should it have gone three or four rounds, it would’ve impacted. If we do move forward, everyone has to follow the same set of rules.”
Councilor Joshua Crossman also supported the simple-majority style of voting.
“When you go to get eye glasses, they ask you, one or two, then they switch, one or two. You keep doing that until you get it narrowed down to your final choices,” Crossman said. “But ranked choice doesn’t get that. You don’t get to switch it up as you go.”
Prior to the final vote, the council considered three different methods of filling the vacant seat: simple majority, a top two selection with a second round of voting, and ranked-choice voting.
Hess first motioned to approve ranked-choice voting to fill Smith’s seat, but the motion failed with just supporting votes from Hess and Councilor Joseph Richardson.
Councilor Terry Kaminski then motioned for the simple-majority style of voting to be approved, which passed 5-1.
DePinto said after the meeting that the council will determine future appointment methods at those times.
