WAGOP Files Lawsuit Disputing 2024 LD 18 State Senate General Election
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Today the Washington State Republican Party (WAGOP) filed a lawsuit in Clark County Superior Court 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 only 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.
The WAGOP, and their attorney Ard Law Group are disputing the results and are asking for the race to not be certified. They are saying over 1,000 votes counted in the race were from voters who did not reside in the district.
Apparently over 1,000 registered voters had previously contacted the United States Postal Service (USPS) and moved out of LD 18 prior to ballots being mailed out for the November 5, 2024 general election
WAGOP State Chairman Jim Walsh said on Twitter, “what the heck are those people doing voting, and more important, why aren’t election officials in Washington State doing their duty and updating their databases so that people that moved away aren’t voting in their areas?”
Washington's 18th legislative district is one of forty-nine districts in Washington state for representation in the state legislature. LD 18 is located within Clark County, bordering the 20th district in the North, and the 49th and 17th districts in the Southwest and East.
LD 18 includes parts of Vancouver, Battleground, Salmon Creek, Felida, a small part of Ridgefield, and other rural parts of Clark County.
OF NOTE: LD 18 was redistricted in 2022 forcing longtime LD 18 State Senator Ann Rivers out of office. The redistricting did not adversely affect current LD 18 State Representative Stephanie McClintock (position 1) who held on to her seat winning election, but current representative Greg Cheney (position 2), who was trying to be the next LD 18 State Senator was knocked out by Benton in the August primary (both Rivers and Cheney will soon be out of the legislature).
However, some very good news out of all this. In the 2024 general election, longtime Conservative John Ley won the LD 18 position 2 “open seat” vacated by Cheney, comfortably by over 1,600 votes over his Democrat opponent.
The State Democrats currently control the WA State legislature in the Senate 29 to 20 and would love no better than to win this seat to make it 30 to 19!
A big thank you to the WAGOP and all involved assisting with this lawsuit, it is another vital step to help restore faith and confidence in our elections!
A possible remedy may be to have a new election specific for this race. Also, very soon there will be a mandatory machine re-count under RCW 29A.64.021 conducted by the Clark County Auditor and Elections Department.
In Washington State a “machine recount” requires the election’s office to look at the undervotes in the contest. An undervote is a contest where a voter chose not to vote. We will be tracking the case and updating you as more information develops.
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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