WA State Dems Continue with Their Plans to Criminalize Citizen Voter Challenges...
Educate. Advocate. Mitigate. Activate!
If you dare to question elections and the voter rolls in WA State, you may soon be a criminal if proposed Substitute House Bill 1916, Relating to amending voter registration challenges and managing voter registration lists, becomes law.
With SHB 1916, legislative Democrats want to make voter challenges more difficult, even criminalizing the process. If you do voter challenges wrong (against new virtually impossible 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!
In the 2024 legislative session, Dems attempted similar shenanigans to make voter challenges more difficult with SB 5856, Concerning Voter Registration Challenges, which eventually died.
Now in 2025, the State Dems are completely weaponizing laws using fear and intimidation tactics to stop successful, legal, law-abiding citizen efforts to improve WA State elections. They are already attempting this by Criminalizing Petition Signature Gathering with SB 5382: Whereas Dems want to re-write state law and replace the language “To the Best of Our Knowledge” with “Must Affirm Under Penalty of False Swearing.”
But in 2025, once again, State Democrats seem to have Voter Challenge Derangement Syndrome! SHB 1916 is simply a re-write of HB 1223. Both are rage-drafted folly bills by Leftist Progressives, including but not limited to the Brennan Center for Justice, who love to use criminal law standards including “Probable Cause” and proof “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” in their legislation.
WHAT ARE DEMOCRATS AFRAID OF?
Voter challenges are a legal and effective way to remove voters from voter rolls. Any individual should be able to challenge a voter if he or she suspects that the voter is not qualified to vote.
Over the past few years in Washington State, several election integrity activists in multiple counties (including Clark, Kittitas, Mason, Skagit, Thurston, and others) have been very successful with voter roll challenges, subsequently helping the county auditors remove these voters from the rolls.
Highlights of SHB 1916:
1) A challenger would be required to “dox” the new address the registrant has moved to after moving out of the address previously provided to the county auditor.
2) A challenger may only bring a challenge concerning registrants in the challenger’s own county (even if the registrant lives across the street).
3) A challenger must meet the same burden of proof required of prosecutors in criminal cases “beyond a reasonable doubt” to have a challenge upheld.
4) 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!
5) A voter may no longer challenge any registrant on “Inactive” status!
It is troubling that the bill prohibits the auditor from immediately canceling an inactive voter upon receipt of information that the inactive 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 crazy 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 300,000 “inactive” voters in the state’s voter roll database. It makes one wonder: why so many and why are they there?
Those “inactives” are merely sitting in reserve for any bad actors to possibly re-activate them and simply 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 Washington State? And in so doing, criminalize the process and scare the hell out of 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?
Feb 14, SHB 1916 was voted out of the House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee (4 Ds to 3 Rs). Thanks to Republicans who amended the bill, making it a bit more tolerable by reducing these possible ridiculous crimes.
Also, thanks to Rep. Jim Walsh, who went on the record and made the case saying: “Voter challenges are an essential part of our Democracy, it is in our state’s law the process that ‘the people’ can make sure our voter rolls are accurate. I am concerned that when we restrict the public's ability to be engaged in our election process, to be a check and balance on our mail-in voting system, we go into places that are frankly limiting Democracy. We need to encourage more engagement in the political process, and voter challenges are part of that engagement!” Video Here
Bill Bruch
Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman (5th year), WAGOP Executive Board Member (5th Year), Skagit County GOP Chairman (9th year), 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.
Related Links:
SHB 1916: Amending voter registration challenges and managing voter registration lists
January 14, 2025, Executive Session - SHB 1916 House State Government & Tribal Relations
What does it mean to challenge a voter's eligibility, and who can do it?
Now WA State Democrats Want to Criminalize Petition Signature Gathering...
