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Washington State Institute for Public Policy

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Conservation District Elections in Washington State: Final Report
Open Publication PDF

Cory Briar, Alexandra Johnson - June 2025

The 2023 Washington State Legislature tasked WSIPP with investigating the cost of conservation district (CD) supervisor elections under current law and two alternative policies that would place these elections on the general ballot. WSIPP was also directed to evaluate the potential non-monetary impacts of these alternative policies. To conduct this study, we collected data from all 45 CDs in Washington to summarize election costs, funding, and turnout under current law. We surveyed CD supervisors and staff about the potential impacts of the alternative policies. This final report covers our analysis of CD supervisor elections under current law and the potential monetary and non-monetary impacts of two alternative policies specified in the legislative assignment.

Under current law, CDs vary widely in the cost of their elections. From 2020–2024, total election costs ranged from a low of $50 to nearly $422,000, with a median of $2,500. CDs fund their elections in a number of ways, including state funding, flat per-parcel fees charged at the county level, or the overhead portion of grants they receive to conduct conservation programming. Turnout in CD elections is very low, with only one CD having more than 1% of its eligible voters cast ballots between 2020 and 2024.

We find that both of the alternative election policies would lead to drastic increases in election costs for most CDs. The first policy, which places CD elections on the general ballot, would have resulted in a median election cost increase of 225% per biennium from 2020–2024. This would increase to a 651% increase if primaries were required. The second policy would additionally change elections such that supervisors run for one of five zones within a CD. This policy would have been less costly but would still have led to a median cost increase of 75% over current law (338% with primaries).

CD supervisors and staff communicated that they expected more non-monetary costs than benefits to result from the alternative policies. Many districts shared that the policies could lead to more turnout in elections and engagement with CDs, but some questioned whether this would lead to increased engagement with CDs. Most districts feared the policies would lead to increased politicization of CDs and fewer resources being devoted to conservation programming.

Download:   Report    Executive Summary    Series Recap  
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