UPDATE: WAGOP LD 18 State Senate Lawsuit and Recount - When is a Recount NOT a Recount?
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When is a Recount NOT a Recount?
This is a follow-up to my Dec 6 article regarding the WAGOP lawsuit disputing the current 2024 Legislative District 18 State Senator race. The case is Matthew Frohlich and Washington State Republican Party Plaintiffs, V Clark County and Greg Kimsey, in his official Capacity as the Clark County Auditor, Defendants.
In the race, Republican candidate Brad Benton is down by 172 votes with 84,123 total votes cast. Benton has 41,881 (49.79%) votes and his Democrat challenger Adrian Cortes has 42,053 (49.99%) votes.
Washington's 18th legislative district is located within Clark County, bordering the 20th district in the North, and the 49th and 17th districts in the Southwest and East and includes parts of Vancouver, Battleground, Salmon Creek, Felida, a small part of Ridgefield, and other rural parts of Clark County.
The WAGOP and their attorney Ard Law Group are disputing the results and asking for the race to not be certified. They say over 1,000 votes counted in the race were from voters who did not reside in the district, violating RCW 29A.08.060. The case is scheduled for Jan 30, 2025, in Clark County Superior Court.
Specifically, it appears that the National Change of Address (NCOA) database maintained by the US Postal Service reflects that 1,046 ballots mailed, returned, and tallied in the race were voted and returned by people who had previously filed change of address notices.
The vote margin between the candidates of 172 votes (.20%) required a mandatory recount (see RCW 29A.64.021). That recount was completed Dec 9.
If the vote margin is less than 150 votes, the recount must be a hand recount of the paper ballots (see RCW 29A.64.021).
A machine recount requires elections officials to review write-in votes and undervotes in the contest. An undervote is a contest where a voter chose not to vote. In the LD 18 State Senate race, there were approximately 4,753 undervotes.
After inspection, elections officials “retabulate” the votes per WAC 434-264-010
Per Clark County Elections Assistant Manager Email: “We have completed the machine recount for the 18th Legislative District Senator contest. One ballot was identified to have been marked with a light purplish pen that was too light for the software to identify as a vote. We physically inspected that ballot and there was a valid mark in the Adrian Cortes response from precinct 430. There are no other changes to the original abstract.
A machine recount requires only the undervotes (4,753) to be reviewed to ensure that their were not votes present that the software did not count this could include any of the following marks outside the target area, a light mark which shows on screen as a haze or dotting pattern in the box but does not meet the threshold for the machine to count it (In these cases we pull the physical ballot to review), or voter intent was not properly decided. A machine recount also confirms the software was not malfunctioning by indicating an undervote if a vote was present. The ballot contests were all reviewed electronically except for the 1 ballot that had a dotting pattern in the box, we manually reviewed this ballot and determined the voter had used a light purple pen and did not completely fill in the square. That ballot was then counted for the candidate (Adrian Cortes).
Per WAC 434-264-055. In a machine recount of votes cast on digital scan ballots, the tabulating equipment must be programmed to identify all ballots that include an undervoted office or ballot measure subject to the recount. All ballots identified must be inspected to confirm that no vote was cast. If the inspection detects a vote cast that was not correctly counted by the tabulating equipment, the county auditor shall refer the ballot to the county canvassing board consistent with WAC 434-261-070.”
Hmm... So when does a Mandatory Machine Recount mean RE-counting actual paper ballots cast in a given election? The answer in the State of Washington is NEVER, unless laws are changed...
This is absolutely ludicrous! This is supposed to be a recount. But elections officials are just looking at the "UNDER VOTES" OF VOTERS WHO DIDN’T EVEN VOTE IN THE RACE.
In other words... Election officials are only "recounting" ballot images for the race of the VOTERS WHO DID NOT VOTE IN THAT RACE. Hey SoS and County Auditors - Can we just please at least pretend to have a machine recount and put the actual paper ballots through the machines!
OF NOTE: These types of "recounts" ARE NOT ACTUAL RECOUNTS and additionally DO NOTHING TO VERIFY IF THE PAPER BALLOTS THEMSELVES ARE COUNTERFEIT!
WHEN IS A CURED BALLOT NOT CURED?
There was a huge discrepancy in the Ballot Cure acceptance rate between the Brad Benton campaign versus the rest of the cures turned in around Clark County.
When a voter forgets to sign the envelope containing their ballot or when the signature on the envelope does not match what is on record, “ballot curing” is necessary. It is the process of informing a voter to fix/cure their signature so their vote is counted per WAC 434-261-053.
According to the WAGOP: “The Benton campaign ran a robust ballot rehab effort for 2 1/2 weeks preceding certification and garnered over 400 cures. There was a natural cure rate that cut into the number of affidavits that could be effectively turned in. The campaign turned in everything we had, and of the over 400 affidavits submitted, we knew only 329 had not been cured and were within the boundaries of LD 18.
Clark County elections staff informed WAGOP that about 2,400 cures were submitted around the county, counting the ones the Benton campaign submitted. Subtracting out the new 329 cures the Benton campaign submitted leaves a little less than 2,100 cures submitted for the rest of the county. Only 20 of those roughly 2,100 cures were rejected; the rest were accepted and counted (about a 1% rejection rate).
The Benton cure rate is starkly different, with 59 of the 329 affidavits actually being rejected according to the final match back report from the SoS. This means the rejection rate for the Benton affidavits was about 18% or nearly 1,800% higher than the rest of the county’s cure forms. If 22 of those 59 affidavits were counted, it very likely would have triggered a manual recount. Additionally, all of the 329 Benton cure forms had valid witness signatures, which a simple reading of WAC 434.261.051-053 is sufficient to count them in virtually all circumstances.”
Why was the rejection rate for the Benton affidavits so abnormally high compared to the rest of the cures submitted across the county, especially considering they had witnesses verifying their legitimacy? It is our understanding that many of the 2,100 cures Clark County elections accepted did NOT actually have witness signatures but were counted anyway.”
Could it be that Clark County elections simply did not want to do a manual hand recount of all the paper ballots per 29A.64.021?
When is a Machine Recount NOT a Machine Recount? When you don’t look at any of the ballots counted in the race and you don’t run the ballots through a machine.
In summary: Vote by Mail and these Election “Recounts” that do not even look at the ballots actually voted in the race, is a complete disservice and disgrace to the citizens and voters of Washington State.
Bill Bruch
Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WSRP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 and 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate.
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WA State GOP Files Lawsuit to Dispute 2024 State Primary Election Ballots
Washington State Election Policies Devolve Further into Anarchy
Washington State Election Fake “Recounts” That Are Not Recounts