2024 Washington State Presidential Primary Debacle - Problems Persist...

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Mar 26, 2024

The recently concluded 2024 WA Presidential Preference Primary provided voters an opportunity to help the major political parties choose their presidential nominees. The two eventual nominees advance directly to the November general election after the respective party’s National Convention delegates have selected their presidential nominee later this summer.

HERE ARE THE FINAL UPDATED REPORTED NUMBERS AS OF 3-28-24:

After March 28, 2024 Updates - According to the SoS Website there are:

914,967 Vote Tallies Recorded for President - Democrat Party: or about 53.6%

And

791,351 Vote Tallies Recorded for President - Republican Party: or about 46.4 %

Just an FYI: 914,967 + 791,351 = 1,706,318

So why is the SoS reporting 1,708,308 total votes recorded? Why is there a 1,990 vote discrepancy? No worries, close enough, just another scrivener error glitch, See screenshot taken 3-29-24

WA State has no official party registration and every four years conducts “Open” Presidential Primaries. However, because of WA State Democrat draconian imposed laws and policies by the Democrat controlled legislature and Secretary of State, for a voter’s vote to count, each voter is MANDATED to affiliate with a party via a declaration (check box on the OUTSIDE of the envelope sleeve) and then only vote for the candidate of that party. Gee, what could go wrong?

Also, for 60 days after the election, the party affiliation of all votes cast are public information (allowing anyone to see a voter’s choice).

After much feedback, research and conversations with voters, it is very clear that voters are overwhelmingly against this method of voting. In fact, a high percentage of Republican-leaning voters (including Republican-leaning “Independents”) said they did not vote in the election as a protest because they believed it is no one’s business how or who they voted for. Sadly, potentially hundreds of thousands of voters were disenfranchised, once again leading to a dismal 35.25% recorded statewide voter turnout.

Most obviously, with such a large percentage of WA State Republican votes not being counted, it makes one wonder how the results would have turned out if voters were not required to check the party affiliation box on the outside of the envelope. Is this a way to skew the statistics to make it appear that the Democrat choice is more popular than the Republican choice?

Additionally, questionable county auditor practices where voters who dropped a Presidential Primary ballot in the drop box at the elections office (such as in Skagit County) were recorded as Return Method: “Mail” or “In Person.”

Of note: Around the state incorrect ballot received dates are also a problem - as oftentimes received dates did not reflect the actual dates ballots were placed in drop boxes (to review individual county or statewide ballot status reports you must query the SoS database).

Of more concern, there were many reports of large piles of ballot envelopes with unchecked presidential party affiliation boxes in elections offices long after election day; and “Cure” letters not being mailed out in a timely manner and “Cure” letters not being received at all, or arriving too late for the voter to vote.

Also in Whatcom County, it was reported that the Auditor’s policy is: if a Presidential Preference primary ballot is received from a “Drop Box,” and the outside of the envelope party identification box is not checked, the ballot is automatically recorded as received: “Mail.” The Auditor claims this is done so it is easier to mail out the required “Cure” letter to the registered voter.

With such policies, how can we trust the election reported data? Are these policies on purpose to manipulate the mail-in vs drop box statistics? Regardless of the reasons, election data is being recorded inaccurately and needs to be corrected!

HOW TO FIX THIS? Until we get rid of mail-in voting, or the party affiliation check-boxes, then at a minimum, let’s go back to the way Washington State conducted their elections before 2011. Allow voters to sign on the INSIDE of a privacy flap, and allow them to check a party affiliation box, including having an option of a “non-affiliated” box, allowing voters to vote discreetly for whichever party candidate they want.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - AGAINST MOST REPUBLICANS WISHES: Beginning in 2011 the privacy flap on the signature envelope was no longer used and required voter info on the outside of the ballot return envelope, completely open to the public.

In 2019 the legislature passed SB 5273 An act relating to the presidential primary - which kept party affiliation on the outside of the voter’s envelope and also moved up the Presidential Primary to the second Tuesday in March.

REPUBLICANS OPPOSED 5273! It was referred to the Senate Rules Committee where an amendment was offered by Sen. Hans Zeiger (R) on Jan 30, 2019, that would allow Presidential Primary voters to participate while choosing NOT to declare a party affiliation.

The amendment failed 18 to 29 in the Senate, and 5273 passed the Senate on Jan 30, 2019 - Yeas 29, Nays 18.

In the State House an amendment offered by Rep. Drew MacEwen (R) on Mar 4, 2019, to remove all changes in the bill except for the change in the date of the Presidential Primary, failed 40 to 56 in the House

An amendment offered by Rep. Jim Walsh (R) failed by voice vote on Mar 4, 2019 THAT WOULD HAVE ALLOWED voters who declare an intent NOT to affiliate with a party and voters who do NOT subscribe to a party declaration to vote for a candidate from a list of all candidates of any political party.

SB 5273 passed the House on Mar 4, 2019, Yeas 54 Nays 42, and the final bill was signed into law on Mar 14, 2019.

Also, in 2021, Rep. Jim Walsh and Rep. Skyler Rude (LD 16 ) co-authored HB 1265 which would have allowed an “unaffiliated” option on WA Presidential Primary ballots. The bill was not granted a hearing by Democrats!

Of Note: In 2012, WA State did not hold a Preference Primary, instead, it was a Statewide Caucus where over 50,000 GOP voters attended. In 2016, 2020, and 2024, the WA State GOP went back to a Presidential Primary and it has failed miserably!

As a solution, in 2028 the WAGOP may want to go back to a Republican Statewide Caucus, like in 2012. Other options include a Caucus/Convention, or perhaps a Caucus/Convention - Primary hybrid process (similar to other states).

For example, in Michigan, there are 55 delegates allotted by the RNC. The Michigan State GOP rules say 70%, or 39 delegates, are decided by a statewide Caucus/Convention and 30%, or 16 delegates, are decided by a statewide Primary.

If we did this in Washington, 30 of the 43 RNC allotted delegates would be decided by a Caucus/Convention and 13 delegates would be decided by a Primary.

WHY IS A CAUCUS PREFERRED OVER A PRIMARY?

Reasons Include: Transparency, voter ID, precinct-based voting, election day as opposed to election month, paper ballots instead of machines - preventing election tampering. And a system so only GOP “high-informed” voters choose GOP candidates, NOT Democrat (like what we saw in most states in 2024 such as Iowa and New Hampshire’s 2024 Presidential Primaries), “low-informed” and “uninformed” voters choosing Republican candidates, all the while using mail-in voting (which is much more susceptible to fraud).

Recently the Nevada Republican Party voted to approve rules for a 2024 party-run Presidential Caucus, which took place Feb 8, 2024, two days after the state-run Primary. The Caucus was traditional in the state before the Democratic-led legislature passed a 2021 non-binding law switching the election from a Caucus to a Primary.

The Nevada GOP’s new rules say presidential candidates who participated in the Primary could not participate in the Caucus because the state-run Primary is not approved by the State GOP.

Of interest: The Tennessee Republican Party recently added a new bylaw that prohibits anyone who voted in a non-GOP Primary from running for office as a Republican candidate. This is to keep Dem RINOs (pretending to be Republicans) from running - but of course, that would never happen in Washington State…

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Bill Bruch

Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WAGOP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award recipient by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 RNC National Convention Delegate.

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