S-5970.1

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 8217

State of Washington
66th Legislature
2020 Regular Session
BySenators Walsh and Hunt
Read first time 02/04/20.Referred to Committee on State Government, Tribal Relations & Elections.
BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, IN LEGISLATIVE SESSION ASSEMBLED:
THAT, At the next general election to be held in this state the secretary of state shall submit to the qualified voters of the state for their approval and ratification, or rejection, an amendment to Article II, sections 5 and 6 of the Constitution of the state of Washington to read as follows:
Article II, section 5. The next election of the members of the house of representatives after the adoption of this Constitution shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, eighteen hundred and ninety, and thereafter, ((members of the house of representatives shall be elected biennially and)) their term of office shall be ((two))four years, with one-half of their number retiring every two years; and each election shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, unless otherwise changed by law. The legislature shall provide by law for the transition to staggered four-year terms to be phased in at the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Article II, section 6. After the first election the senators shall be elected by single districts of convenient and contiguous territory, at the same time and in the same manner as members of the house of representatives are required to be elected; and no representative district shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial district. They shall be elected for the term of ((four))six years, ((one-half))one-third of their number retiring every two years. ((The senatorial districts shall be numbered consecutively, and the senators chosen at the first election had by virtue of this Constitution, in odd numbered districts, shall go out of office at the end of the first year; and the senators, elected in the even numbered districts, shall go out of office at the end of the third year.))The legislature shall provide by law for the transition to staggered six-year terms to be phased in at the 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028 elections.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the secretary of state shall cause notice of this constitutional amendment to be published at least four times during the four weeks next preceding the election in every legal newspaper in the state.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the amendment is a single amendment within the meaning of Article XXIII, section 1 of the state Constitution.
The legislature finds that the changes contained in this amendment constitute a single integrated plan for the extension of legislative terms. If this amendment is held to be separate amendments, this joint resolution is void in its entirety and is of no further force and effect.
--- END ---