‘People wanted to ditch the switch’: Daylight saving time continues despite broad frustration

As you change your clocks this weekend to mark the end of daylight saving time, you might think: Didn’t we end this?

Technically, yes, though it seems likely the biannual time change will continue for the foreseeable future.

The tradition dates back to 1933, when Seattle became the first city in the state to observe daylight saving time. Spokane, and other cities, quickly joined, though the lack of a uniform time across the state began to create scheduling chaos and confusion, and cities soon returned to standard time.

Seattle tried daylight saving time again in 1948, though that, too, was short-lived, as Washington voters banned it in 1952. Voters reversed course eight years later, and approved statewide daylight saving, which was later federally mandated by the 1966 Uniform Time Act.

However, that nationwide solution has proven unpopular. A 2022 poll from Monmouth University found 61% of Americans want to end the biannual tradition of changing their clocks.

In 2019, the Washington Legislature approved a bill that would move the state to year-round daylight saving time, joining 18 other states that want to end the practice. The change would mean the state would no longer spring forward or fall back, and would instead operate on the time currently used from March to November.

State Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, then a member of the House of Representatives, sponsored the legislation.

In an interview Friday, Riccelli said lawmakers received “overwhelming engagement” when he introduced the legislation, with most people making one request: stop switching the clocks.

“That’s, like, the number-one priority that people wanted to see, is us to stop switching the clocks,” Riccelli said.

However, that legislation can only take effect with congressional approval, and attempts in Washington, D.C., have been routinely blocked.

On Tuesday, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton blocked the latest bipartisan proposal to move to make daylight saving time permanent.

In his remarks, Cotton said that the change would mean the sun would not rise for some until after 8:30 a.m. in the winter, and that “the darkness of permanent saving time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.”

With little progress in the nation’s capital, state lawmakers have tried a different approach to ditch the switch: permanent Pacific Standard Time.

Arizona and Hawaii are currently the only states that observe Pacific Standard Time year-round, an idea that does not need the approval of Congress.

During the 2023 session, Sens. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, and Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, cosponsored legislation that would have permanently moved the state to Pacific Standard Time.

“Switching back and forth between daylight time and standard time confuses and annoys many people, and it causes health problems for some. That’s why Sen. (Kim) Thatcher and I are working together to see if our respective legislatures can keep our clocks on standard time year-round,” then-Sen. Padden said in a statement.

The legislators also tried to coordinate with lawmakers in neighboring states, including California and Oregon, so the West Coast would remain in one time zone.

“If we move by a state, and other states don’t follow, that can create interesting issues,” Riccelli said.

That idea, however, stalled in committee.

Riccelli said his sense is that people would prefer permanent daylight saving time, which means later sunrises and sunsets and a bit more daylight during winter afternoons.

“But what I heard first and foremost is that people wanted to ditch the switch and stop switching clocks,” Riccelli said.