A former Seattle City Councilmember and Microsoft executive has announced her bid to become the first Democratic secretary of state in more than 50 years.

Last week, Queen Anne resident Tina Podlodowski officially launched her campaign to unseat incumbent Kim Wyman for a role that includes serving as the state’s chief elections and corporations officer, as well as supervisor of the state archives. Wyman is the fifth consecutive Republican to hold the position, dating back to 1964.

Podlodowski said her candidacy is a matter of making voting safe, secure and accessible for all, as well as ensuring that there is an equitable, modernized voting system in place.

“Everyone’s vote is their voice in democracy and in our government statewide,” she said, “so we need to make sure that everyone is participating and that every vote is getting counted.”

With voter turnout down to a record-low 38 percent last November and only 75 percent of eligible voters in the state registered, Podlodowski said it falls on the secretary of state to get both of those figures as close to 100 percent as possible.

“The timing was right for me [to run] because the problem has become too acute, that we really need a change in leadership at the secretary of state’s office in fixing this,” she said.

Campaign catalyst

It’s been more than 20 years since Podlodowski last sought elected office, winning a City Council seat in a race against former legislator Jesse Wineberry in 1995. She served one term and opted not to seek reelection.

Since then, she’s served in several roles in the nonprofit sector, as executive director of Lifelong AIDS Alliance and later as president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound.

From 2009 to 2013, she was senior vice president at public affairs firm Porter Novelli, before most recently serving as police reform lead in the Office of Policy & Innovation for Mayor Ed Murray in 2014.

Though voting and voting issues are something that have been “near and dear” to her heart for the last two decades, what compelled her to run was the work being done at Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for American Progress around voting, along with her involvement in the Honest Elections effort, over the last year.

“All of those things over the last year were really sort of the catalyst to get to this point and have lots of people say, ‘Well, you know how to fix it; you know how to change it. Why don’t you just run for secretary of state and make sure it gets done?’” she said.

To boost registration and voting figures, Podlodowski mentioned several ideas, from having ballots available in multiple languages, to offering same-day voter registration and pre-registration for 16- and 17-year olds. Making ballots postage-free is another point of interest.

“Yes, it’s just one stamp, but in this day and age, so many of our transactions happen electronically,” she said. “That stamp can sometimes be hard to find, and for a senior on a fixed income or a young person, that stamp can sometimes be even harder to find.”

And with both overseas and military voters allowed to return ballots by email, Podlodowski is interested in the potential for offering that option on a larger scale.

“If we can do that safely and securely for those voters, why can’t we do it for everyone else?” she said. “Why can’t we look at different ways within the system and build up this idea that voting is something that’s really easy and it’s also something that’s modern and you need to be doing it?”

She also cited her time at Microsoft, along with championing a redevelopment of a financial system at the city — an effort she said came in on time and under budget and saved millions — as beneficial when dealing with the current optical voting system.

“I would bet my skillset on developing large-scale computer systems against anybody who’s running in the race and certainly against the incumbent,” she said.

However, she also stressed how her experience would help her in the aspects of the role beyond that of chief voting officer.

As a consumer advocate, Podlodowski noted her work on the City Council in creating the Cable Customer Bill of Rights, while she also cited her involvement in the group that redeveloped the Paramount Theatre as part of her experience in local preservation.

Getting to the voters

Podlodowski said she plans to visit all 39 counties during her campaign, “listening to voters of all ages, all races, all backgrounds, and really get a sense of why they’re not voting.

“Is it the transaction? Is it the having to put a stamp on the ballot to get it in? Is it despair about their vote counting?” Podlodowski said. “So what can we do to change all of those things, and what can we do to get information to people so that they know what’s happening about voting in their neighborhood, in their city and in their state?”

Podlodowski will kick off her campaign with an event at her Queen Anne home (1620 Seventh Ave. W.) on Jan. 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, go to votersfortina.com.

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