WA State Democrats Continue Plans to Criminalize Citizen Voter Challenges...

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If you dare to question elections and the voter rolls in WA State, you may soon be considered to be a criminal if proposed ESHB 1916, Amending voter registration challenges and managing voter registration lists, becomes law.

Yesterday ESHB 1916, passed off the House floor by a party-line vote (58-38) and is now headed to the Senate. Legislative Democrats want to make voter challenges more difficult, even to the point of criminalizing the process. If you do voter challenges wrong (against new standards), you could face criminal charges.

If you challenge a voter registration without “Reasonable Cause,” you could be guilty of a misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $5,000 and/or up to a year in jail! According to the bill, each instance constitutes a separate offense where a challenger makes a challenge without reasonable cause.

If you submit voter challenges and knowingly provide false information, you could be guilty of “False Swearing” - a Gross Misdemeanor, with a newly imposed fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to a year in jail!

It is shameful that State Dems are completely weaponizing laws using fear and intimidation tactics to stop successful, legal, law-abiding citizen efforts to improve elections by helping county auditors clean and update their voter rolls.

WHAT ARE DEMOCRATS AFRAID OF?

Voter challenges are a legal and effective way to remove illegal registrants from voter rolls. Any individual should be able to challenge voter registrations if they suspect a registration is improper and the registered voter is not qualified to vote.

Over the past few years in WA State, several election integrity activists in multiple counties (including Adams, Clark, Grays Harbor, Island, Kittitas, Mason, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and others) have been very successful with voter roll challenges, subsequently helping the county auditors clean and update their rolls.

Highlights of ESHB 1916:

1) A challenger must meet the same burden of proof required of prosecutors in criminal cases, “beyond a reasonable doubt,” (the same standard applied for murder) to have a challenge upheld. The bill also mandates automatic dismissal if that burden is not met…

2) A successful challenge that the registrant does not live where registered will no longer result in cancellation - the registrant’s status may only be shifted from “Active” to “Inactive,” and the registrant must then remain on the state voter roll for a minimum of four years!

3) A voter may no longer challenge any registrant on “Inactive” status!

It is troubling that the proposed law prohibits the auditor from immediately canceling an inactive voter upon receiving information that the voter has moved out of state, even when the voter has registered to vote in their new state!

The Auditor must wait until the inactive voter has sat through two federal general elections in “inactive” status before canceling. This ridiculous policy allows a voter known to be registered in another state to remain on the WA roll as an “inactive” voter for several years.

According to the WA SoS, there are more than 408,000 “inactive” voters in the state’s voter roll database. It makes one wonder: why so many, and why are they even there?

Are those “inactives” merely sitting in reserve for bad actors to possibly reactivate and submit a ballot for them in future elections? Democrats and the SoS continue irresponsible policies that allow for potential fraudulent submissions of ballots with ease.

The question needs to be asked: Why do Democrats want to make voter challenges virtually impossible in WA State? And in so doing, criminalize the process and scare any good citizen trying to help the local county auditor clean up the voter roll.

What is wrong with the idea of citizens being able to query our state’s voter rolls? What are Democrats really afraid of?

Thanks to House Republicans, who spoke against the bill and attempted to amend it. Perhaps Senate Republicans will have better luck killing the bill or at least making it a bit more tolerable.

Bill Bruch

Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Committee Chairman (6th year), WAGOP Executive Board Member (6th year), Skagit County GOP Chairman (10th year), Citizen Journalist, Olympic Conference 2021 Activist of the Year Award Winner, Business Owner, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 and 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate