2.4.16

Suggested lead:   Thursday in Olympia, lawmakers voted on a bill designed to make local elections more fair.  Dan Frizzell has that story.

Wrap (:85 total):  They call it the Washington Voting Rights Act.  It's intended to level the electoral playing field in cities, counties, and various districts where a substantial minority community is effectively left voiceless because of the way voting boundaries are drawn.  Under federal law, voters who feel they're being shut out can sue in federal courts, but the legal expense and time investment involved on both sides can leave citizens and governments near bankruptcy.  Representative Luis Moscoso, the Mountlake Terrace Democrat who sponsored the Washington bill, crafted it to discourage lawsuits altogether, and made it possible to go through state courts when necessary, at a huge savings.  On the House floor Thursday, he pointed to Yakima as a city where sweeping changes were made by going the federal route, which wouldn't have been necessary with the state Voting Rights Act in place.

MOSCOSO:  "We want to be on the right side of history, but history has already taken place.  We've seen what happened with the elections across the state a few months ago.  Change is underway and it's a good thing.  And we also know, unfortunately, that that change cost our taxpayers millions of dollars that otherwise wouldn't have been paid had this bill been in place." [:20]. 

This is the fourth time the House has passed the Voting Rights Act, this time around on a party line vote, with Democrats in the yes column and Republicans voting no.  Whether it becomes the law of the land this time around is once again in the hands of the Republican-controlled Senate.  In Olympia, I’m Dan Frizzell.