How the Whatcom Progressive Voters Guide Actually Works
Whatcom County uses a ranked-choice voting system for local elections, and the Progressive Voters Guide is essentially a prioritized ranking of candidates that aligns with progressive values. It doesn't tell you what to vote for—it gives you a framework for how to rank candidates when the ballot gets complicated. The guide is published by a coalition of progressive organizations in Whatcom County, and it gets updated as candidates file and positions shift. I've used this guide for roughly eight election cycles now. The most useful thing about it is understanding when it matters and when it doesn't. For county-level offices and judicial retention votes, ranked choice is mandatory. For state legislative races, it depends on whether the district uses RCV or traditional plurality voting. Most Whatcom County statehouse districts do use RCV now, but not all of them, and the guide marks this clearly. You need to know which races are RCV and which aren't before you start filling out your ballot.
Whatcom Progressive Voters Guide
The current guide is available on the Progressive Voters Guide website and gets distributed through local progressive organizations. You can also find PDF versions linked from group newsletters. The site lists candidates by office and assigns a rating—typically something like "Strongly Recommend," "Recommend," "Neutral," "Do Not Recommend," or "Oppose." These ratings are based on candidate questionnaires, public records, and advocacy group positions. The methodology is published alongside the guide, so you can see what criteria they're applying. Here's where people routinely mess up: they assume the guide covers every race on the ballot. It doesn't. The guide focuses on county-level offices, state legislative seats in Whatcom County, and a few key judicial and ballot measure positions. Sheriff, fire districts, port commissions, and school board races are often excluded or handled differently. If you're only looking at the guide and ignoring the full ballot, you'll leave a lot unranked or incorrectly ranked. Another practical detail that trips people up involves the ranking limits. In Whatcom County's RCV system, you're generally expected to rank candidates in order of preference, but you don't have to rank everyone. However, leaving a race entirely unranked means your vote in that race is exhausted immediately. It sounds obvious, but I've seen ballot analysis showing significant portions of progressive-leaning ballots sitting unused in later RCV rounds because voters stopped ranking after the first or second choice. The workaround is simple: go through the guide, note which candidates you should rank, then check the full ballot for any RCV races the guide doesn't cover and fill those in with your best judgment before voting.
The guide also gets updated closer to the election, sometimes after candidates withdraw or new information emerges. I ran into this during the 2024 cycle when a candidate for Whatcom County Council dropped out two weeks before the election. The guide was updated within 48 hours, but the QR code linking to it from printed flyers was still pointing to the old candidate list. If you're relying on physical materials, always verify the URL yourself rather than scanning a potentially outdated code. It takes ten seconds and saves you from acting on stale information. One counter-intuitive thing about using this guide effectively: don't treat the ratings as rigid instructions. The guide reflects a specific organizational perspective, and while it's well-researched, it can miss nuances in local races. A "Neutral" rating on a judicial retention vote doesn't necessarily mean the candidate is problematic—it might mean there wasn't enough public information to form a strong opinion. Similarly, a "Do Not Recommend" on a local office race might reflect a single policy disagreement rather than a comprehensive assessment. Cross-reference with other sources if you care about a particular race, especially for lower-profile positions where the guide has less coverage. The biggest limitation of the guide, honestly, is that it can't account for last-minute candidate changes or undeveloped policy positions. Candidates can shift their stance after the guide goes to print. I've had situations where a candidate I was comfortable ranking based on the guide took a position during the final weeks of the campaign that contradicted what the guide outlined. The remedy is to check the guide's publication date against the election date and do a quick independent review of candidate statements in the week leading up to voting. It's not a lot of time, but it catches the most common gaps.
Get the Full Details
If you want the actual guide, search for "Whatcom Progressive Voters Guide" and the official site should come up. They also maintain an email list if you want updates delivered before each election cycle. The process is straightforward: locate the guide, identify which races on your ballot are covered by RCV, rank the candidates accordingly, and make sure you've addressed any uncovered RCV races on your own. That's it. No tricks, no special formatting. Just an informed ranking on your ballot.
