As we reflect on the current election it could be useful to discuss how we can make the elections better in the future. This year we had a number of good candidates willing to give of their time to help the city. Did the current election process produce the best 4 folks or are there other ways to improve the process. One idea to think about is a “top two” voting process. In this last election with 4 council seats up for grabs the process would work something like this. For the primary, all the candidates would run competing to be one of the top 8 in the primary votes. (If we had 3 seats open like our next election, then we would select the top 6 for the general) Then in the general election the top 4 would win a seat.

Now for some other benefits:

1. Potential Candidates would start from a position of “Here’s what I can do for Edmonds” and would not have to pick and incumbent to “target”.

2. Incumbents who have served the public well would still have an advantage but they would have to spend more time demonstrating what they have done and would they would like to do in the future. Poor incumbents would have to convince the public that they could do better.

3. More good candidates would come forward because of this better more positive process.

4. The election dialog and candidate forums would change dramatically and would take on a more positive tone.

5. In the end we would get to know what each candidate would do for Edmonds and that will provide for more informed public and better elections.

We can only speculate how this election would have worked out with a “top two” process but anything that would make the election a more positive process and to select the best 4 to help run the city would be helpful.