Why do Democrats want to make Voter Challenges virtually impossible in Washington State?

Educate. Advocate. Mitigate. Activate!

If you dare to question elections and the voter rolls in Washington State, you now may be guilty of perjury (a gross misdemeanor) if proposed House Bill 1223 is signed into law.

This is another ridiculous bill by WA State Democrats attempting to once again stifle voter challenges. In 2023 Dems managed to change the voter challenge laws, making challenges more difficult, and in the 2024 legislative session Dems attempted similar shenanigans with SB 5856 “Concerning Voter Registration Challenges” which eventually died.

But in 2025, once again, State Democrats seem to have Voter Challenge Derangement Syndrome! HB 1223 is a rage-drafted folly by Leftist Progressives, which use criminal law standards including “Probable Cause” and “Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.”

Voter challenges are a legal and effective way to help remove voters off of the voter rolls who have no reason of being on the rolls. An individual can 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) have been very successful with voter roll challenges and subsequently helping the county auditor remove these voters off of the rolls.

Highlights of House Bill 1223:

1. Creates a conditional misdemeanor offense for bringing a voter challenge

2. Prohibits the Auditor from canceling an “Inactive Voter” upon receipt of information that the inactive voter has moved out of state

3. Bans challenges of inactive voters

4. Requires a challenger to use a “form letter” created by the SoS

5. Geographically restricts challengers to challenges in their own city or county

6. Requires the challenger to appear in person at the hearing, failing which the challenge is summarily dismissed

7. Prohibits the Auditor from immediately canceling a voter upon receipt of official information that the voter has registered in another state; requires the Auditor to send such a voter notice and move the voter to Inactive Status

It is interesting that according to the bill, the auditor may no longer rely on the advising registered voter’s statement under penalty of perjury.

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 self-certified their out-of-state move!

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 307,932 inactive voters in the state’s voter roll database. 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 any future election. So instead of safeguarding the value of our right to vote, the SoS and Democrats continue to expose this value to dilution via great potential for 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 try to 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 so wrong with the idea of citizens being able to query our state’s voter rolls? What are Democrats scared of?’’

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Bill Bruch

Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WAGOP Executive Board Member, 5-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 & 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate.