The Urbanist Elections Committee is seeking new members to join the committee to expand our geographic scope for the 2025 election cycle. If you live in an Eastside suburb, Tacoma, South Seattle, Shoreline, or Lynnwood and are interested in urbanism and politics, please apply. Volunteering with the committee is a great chance to meet political leaders and engage on issues that matter, like abundant housing, ubiquitous rapid transit, sustainable land use, and safe streets.
The Elections Committee decides which candidates for office deserve The Urbanist’s endorsement. We’re seeking to expand our scope of endorsements and are looking to recruit new members from new areas to join us ahead of our 2025 endorsements. This volunteer commitment is around 20 hours, and requires some weekend and evening hours to complete interviews, vote on our selections, and write the endorsements.
We’re looking for passionate, locally-engaged volunteers to help guide our political endorsements for the 2025 cycle. Email elections [at] theurbanist.org or apply by filling out our form before our March 8 deadline.
Our endorsement process
The endorsement process begins in earnest in the spring, ahead of the primary election in August. The first step is to select races for endorsement. Having a broader array of members will allow us to endorse in more cities and races.
The Elections Committee selects the candidates to invite for an interview using criteria such as: having a reasonable platform, relevant experience, community presence, web presence, other endorsements, and affiliation with underrepresented communities. The committee devises a questionnaire for each set of races and sends it to selected candidates in May. Completing a questionnaire guarantees candidates’ eligibility for endorsement. Questionnaires are published verbatim for our readers.
Where we need more information, we invite candidates for an interview with the Elections Committee, typically a virtual interview held in June. This allows the Elections Committee to engage directly with the candidates for follow-up questions. It also provides a unique opportunity to get to know candidates better and get your lingering questions addressed.
After interviewing the candidates, the Elections Committee meets to vote on endorsements. The process allows for the endorsement of no, one, or multiple candidates in each race, though selecting a single candidate is preferred. Members of the Elections Committee collaboratively summarize the endorsement reasoning in an article published before ballots are mailed out. Sometimes we also create graphics to promote our endorsements.
For the general election, we update our endorsements based on who has advanced through the primary and what additional measures are on the ballot. Typically, most of the work is completed ahead of the primary. See our 2024 general endorsements for an example of the finished product. Other past endorsements are linked on our committee page as well.
Note that we have a conflict of interest policy. Members who are paid campaign staff or romantically involved with a candidate are required to disclose that conflict and recuse themselves in that race.
Apply today
Send in your application by March 8.
Elections Committee
The Urbanist was founded in 2014 to examine and influence urban policies. We believe cities provide unique opportunities for addressing many of the most challenging social, environmental, and economic problems. We serve as a resource for promoting urbanism, increasing political participation, and improving the places we live. The Elections Committee consists of community volunteers and staff members of The Urbanist and is a standing body representing the political values of our organization.
