Voting reforms trail in Seattle, but it's too close to call

Details: For either change to be adopted, at least 50% of people would need to vote yes on an initial question asking if the city should adopt either reform.

• But a slim majority of ballots counted in early returns favored rejecting both proposals, with about 51% favoring keeping the city's elections the same.
• More ballots remain to be counted, meaning the results could change later this week.

Why it matters: Backers of both reforms expressed some shared goals, including making political campaigns less divisive and ensuring that elected leaders have a wide base of support.

• But they disagreed about whether approval voting, which is only used in two U.S. cities, would accomplish that — and whether the less-tested voting system could prompt legal challenges.

Catch up quick: Either reform, if adopted, would be used only in primary elections for city attorney, city council and the mayor's office.

By the numbers: Those who wanted to change the city's election system overwhelmingly favored ranked choice voting over approval voting in the earliest round of ballot counting, according to King County Elections.

• About 74% favored the switch to ranked choice voting, Proposition 1B, the elections agency reported.
• The measure to enact approval voting in city primary elections, Proposition 1A, sat at about 26% support as of Tuesday night.

What's next: More ballots will be counted in the coming days, clarifying the results.

• If approval voting is adopted, officials would have to implement it no later than 2025.
• Ranked choice voting, if adopted, would need to be implemented by 2027.