The History of Washington's Wandering Election Day

Despite intending to choose a voting day that's best for voters, timing could still be easier - and legislators can fix that.
For the past 50 years, Washington has held municipal elections in November of odd-numbered years, separate from other federal, state, and county elections. Most voters are too young to remember when the state's municipal elections happened on different dates, but the timing of elections has never been set in stone. Now, given the changes to voting that the state has enacted since the last date change - namely, mail-in voting - it may be time for another update to when Washington holds Election Day. Legislators could follow through on the goals of their predecessors, to say nothing of the overwhelming preference of voters, and continue to make voting easier by moving municipal elections to even-numbered years.
Early date changes consolidated most elections
Washington has never held national and municipal elections on the same day. When the state was founded in 1889, municipal elections were held annually on the first Tuesday in December. Then, the state legislature changed the timing of elections five times in the first half of the 20th century:
1907: Elections moved to the first Tuesday in April.
1921: The date moved to the first Tuesday in May. The wording of the law specified that elections were held "in the year in which they may be called." This phrasing suggests that elections could be held in either odd- or even-numbered years, based on the politicians' terms of office.
1923: The state moved elections to the second Tuesday in March.
1955: Elections were set for March of even-numbered years so that they happened in the same year as federal, state, and county elections, but in a different month.
1963: The election date for the largest cities changed to the first Tuesday in November of odd-numbered years. The law did not take effect until 1967. After an Executive Session in 1975-76, this change applied to all cities and towns in the state.
Five date changes in less than 100 years is a lot; state lawmakers certainly have not always aligned on the best time to hold elections. And many of the updates have complicated caveats - some of these date changes only affected the larger "Class A" and "Class AA" counties, for example. The change in 1955 did not apply if it conflicted with a city's charter. So, large cities with a charter provision that required elections in an odd-numbered year on a date other than the first Tuesday in November were allowed to keep that date; other large cities moved their elections to the first Tuesday in November of odd numbered years; and smaller cities still held their elections in March of either even- or odd-numbered years.
In those early years, lawmakers seem to have been trying to figure out the best timing for local elections. What were they aiming for?
The reasoning behind the change in 1963
Alas, historical records don't include the reasoning behind most of the earlier changes. But the Office of the Secretary of State wrote an Explanatory Comment for the 1963 change, which suggests that the Secretary is focused on making voting easier for voters.
The first reason the office offered for moving elections to November of odd-numbered years was to "re-unite the holding of city elections with school districts elections." In addition, the explanatory comment said the change "would establish September and November of each year as a consistent time for holding of elections. It would make sense to the voters, and the cities, towns, and districts concerned would be able to share the costs of elections." The Secretary likely noticed that the convoluted timing across different cities was not easy for voters or election administrators.
The 1963 bill also moved port elections in King and Pierce counties from November of even-numbered years to odd-numbered years. The Explanatory Comment says that the goal of that shift was to reduce the "overcrowding of state election ballots."
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