While looking through my voter’s guide, something stood out to me: almost every candidate in every race seemed to be from the same party.

This realization led to another question: which city council member do I talk to if I have a Ballard-related question?

Seattle politics needs a few changes. We need more politically diverse candidates, a city council that represents individual districts and to get rid of the top-two primary.

This is the second election year that we have had the top-two primary. Last year, in the race for our local state representative, that gave us a choice between two well-funded candidates of the same party, one of whom won the general election.

How was that a choice?

I fail to see how the top-two primary is an improvement of the democratic process when it means that in districts like ours where large numbers of people vote for one party, both candidates in the general election will nearly always be from the same party.

Dissenting voices will not be heard in the general election, and a large section of the voters in this district who don’t necessarily want to vote for this party every time or at all will be perpetually disenfranchised in the name of a “less cluttered” ballot.

Speaking of disenfranchisement, if you want to talk to a city council member about something going on in Ballard, who do you talk to? If all of the seats are at-large, then nobody really has an interest in sticking up for a particular neighborhood.

A group called tried to get a referendum on the ballot to change the current city council charter to have five council members from districts and four at-large seats.

The group did not get enough signatures to get on the ballot for this year, but it certainly makes you think.

Would a council member who represented Ballard have had something to say about the fight over the Missing Link? Would they have something to say about the over-densification of Ballard and that Ballard has reached 205 percent of its 20-year growth targets? Or the lack of access Ballard has to the new tunnel? Or that with Ballard might not get the Rapid buses due to budget cuts?

Having a council member who is an actual representative who can act as an advocate for a specific neighborhood and can be held accountable for doing (or not doing) so would give neighborhoods power they currently lack.

When you cast your ballot, I suggest you imagine the possibility of having a council member who would actually go to bat for Ballard once in a while.

I also suggest that if you happen to support the party that always wins around here, take off your partisan hat for a moment and imagine if the situation were reversed.

Change certainly needs to happen in Seattle politics, but most of it is of a procedural nature.

Do you have a column suggestion or a comment for Brian LeBlanc? Leave a comment on this story or reach him directly at brianleblanc76@yahoo.com.