Commission Votes 8–7 to Ask Voters to Require More Than 8–7 Votes

VANCOUVER — The Clark County Charter Review Commission voted 8–7 on Thursday to ask voters to require more than an 8–7 vote for certain county decisions, sending a supermajority requirement for new or increased taxes to the November ballot by the narrowest available margin.

The measure is one of 10 charter amendments the commission approved for the ballot, alongside a three-term limit for councilors, a lower signature threshold for initiatives, and an expansion of the county’s ethics commission from three members to five, increasing local capacity for ethics by two chairs.

“Eight to seven is decisive enough for this,” one commissioner explained. “Though I will grant it would not be decisive enough under this.”

An early motion to adopt the supermajority requirement by supermajority, for symbolic reasons, failed 8–7.

The tax measure requires a simple majority of voters to pass, meaning residents may impose supermajorities on their government by the same margin the government used to ask.

Voters will decide in November, a month the commission approved unanimously.