Washington

Washington: Bill on voter database privacy protections headed to governor’s desk | Ayeda Masood/Washington State Journal

A bill aimed at protecting Washington’s voter registration database from being disclosed through public records requests is headed to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk.State officials sought the bill after a recent request from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for sensitive voter information. State or local election officials who knowingly distribute private voter registration database information without authorization from the Secretary of State would face a Class C Felony. Previously, Washington law only stated that county elections offices were “not required” to produce records in response to such PRA requests. The bill clarifies that county offices are prohibited from doing so. Read Article

Washington: Stung by a court ruling, state looks to clarify what is an ‘election’ | Jerry Cornfield/OPB

It may seem obvious that a registered voter in Washington can only vote once in an election. It’s not. Last month, a state appeals court overturned the felony conviction of a Lewis County resident found guilty of voting twice in November 2022 — once in Washington and once in Oregon. In a 2-1 decision, the court concluded that because there were no overlapping candidates or issues on the two ballots, these were separate elections. An election, they reasoned, refers to a choice among a specific slate of candidates or propositions, and not the process of voting on a particular day. Lewis County prosecutors will ask the Washington Supreme Court to review the decision. Meanwhile, lawmakers, at the behest of Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, have responded with a bill to provide a more precise definition of “election” and “same election.” Read Article

Washington: Ballots could now be tossed if voters submit them via U.S. Postal Service due to postmarking delays | By Emry Dinman/The Spokesman-Review

Voters who have not submitted their ballots yet should stop submitting them through the mail due to unprecedented concerns ballots will not be postmarked in time for the election, according to recommendations from the Washington secretary of state. State law allows mail-in ballots to be received and still counted after Election Day, even if they arrive to election workers days later, but only if they are postmarked on Election Day or before. Postal union leadership and election officials say the U.S. Postal Service’s delivery of mail – and, critically for the upcoming election, postmarking – has been significantly delayed by multiple factors stemming from former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s “10-year plan” to reform the postal service. The Spokane County Elections Office has recommended voters shouldn’t return their ballots via a mailbox any later than Friday, a full four days before the election; the Washington Secretary of State’s Office goes even further, cautioning voters to not use a mailbox within seven to 10 days ahead of the election. Read Article

Washington: USPS rule changes may complicate mail-in voting, risking late ballots in November election | Joel Moreno/KOMO

Ballots go out starting next week for the November general election but people who mail them back through the United States Postal Service (USPS) could risk not having their votes counted. It all has to do with a rule change regarding postmarking and the point at which voters mail their ballots back. “We encourage all voters to return their ballot as early as possible but that is especially true if you plan to return your ballot by mail,” said Halei Watkins, the communications manager for King County Elections. The rule change involves added language around how the USPS postmarks mail. The postmark will now confirm the Postal Service’s possession of the letter or parcel on the date that is printed, but the postmark date “does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of a mail piece,” according to a recent news release. Read Article

Washington election officials raise concern over federal request for voter data | Mitchell Roland/The Spokane Spokesman-Review

The Trump administration has requested information about Washington voters, including names, dates of birth, addresses and either a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number as part of a probe into “ineligible voter entities.” According to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, some of the information sought by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is considered protected information under state law. The request, sent Monday with a deadline of Sept. 22, is part of the White House’s increased efforts to crack down on electoral systems throughout the country. In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said, “Enforcing the Nation’s elections laws is a priority in this administration and in the Civil Rights Division.” Read Article

Washington counties to join multistate election cybersecurity group | Laurel Demkovich/Cascade PBS

The Washington Secretary of State’s Office is funding memberships for all counties to join a multistate election-security program after federal money for election cybersecurity was cut, the Secretary of State Office announced Tuesday. All 39 counties will be members of the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a nonprofit that provides cybersecurity threat prevention and response support to 18,000 government organizations across the country. Membership in the organization includes access to cyberthreat intelligence, incident response support and real-time information sharing, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Read Article

Washington state to require counties to partition off their election systems | Colin Wood/StateScoop

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Saturday signed 50 bills into law, including one designed to strengthen the security of election systems overseen by state and county offices. Senate Bill 5014, which the legislature unanimously approved last month, creates several new requirements for government offices involved in elections, including adoption of the .gov top-level domain for their websites. It requires election equipment to be partitioned from other “supporting electronic infrastructure” and adds new breach reporting requirements. Upon signing the bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Matt Behnke, Ferguson said it “will reinforce and strengthen Washington’s commitment to fair and secure elections.” The legislation advises all changes to be made “as soon as practicable,” but no later than July 1, 2027. Read Article

Washington: Thurston County video series wins award for humanizing elections | Kameko Marquez/JOLT News

Thurston County is in the national spotlight for its award-winning video series that builds voter trust through an unfiltered storytelling of county-level vote administration. The video series “Your Neighbors, Your Elections,” produced by the Auditor’s Office Elections Division, won the 2024 Clearinghouse Award from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), as announced by the county in a press release on Wednesday, April 16. The county received the highest national recognition, which is the “Distinguished Voter Education and Communications Initiatives,” for its “excellence in voter education and communications” among the large jurisdictions in the country. It was also chosen for its strong messaging through the use of authentic county staff voices. Read Article

Washington Supreme Court rejects challenge to mail-in ballot signature verification process | Monique Merrill/Courthouse News Service

Washington state’s mail-in ballot process that requires election workers to verify ballot signatures will remain in place, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. “The undisputed fact that signature verification results in tens of thousands of votes being disqualified every election raises significant constitutional concerns,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Steven Gonzalez wrote in the 32-page opinion. However, the high court determined that the law at issue does not itself require election workers to disqualify a single valid ballot, and the opportunities to cure rejected ballots don’t exclude or unduly burden voters. Read Article

Washington: Secretaries of State past and present question federal criticism of election integrity efforts: ‘The threats continue’ | Mitchell Roland/The Spokane Spokesman-Review

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has written to the state’s congressional delegation expressing concerns about “federal support and efforts to counter election disinformation” state officials across the country can expect going forward. Hobbs’ letter, which he sent to members of Congress Wednesday, comes after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reportedly placed 17 election officials on leave last week pending review. According to Hobbs, the election security advisor for Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington was among those placed on leave. “This abrupt move has left state and local election officials wondering: Who can we depend on to support election security now? Especially in light of the growing threats from cybercriminals and nation-state actors,” Hobbs said Wednesday. Read Article

Washington: Months after Vancouver ballot drop box is set ablaze, state’s election security funds are set to expire | Daniel Walters/The Oregonian

Three months after attacks on absentee ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington, the arsonist has not been caught. And Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey has scrambled to find ways to upgrade security for Clark County’s ballot boxes, including outfitting them with new security cameras and fire suppression systems. Yet the state funding that counties have been using to upgrade ballot box security is set to expire, meaning election offices may soon have even fewer options to bolster security to prevent future attacks. Read Article

Washington legislation would put security cameras near ballot drop boxes | Tim Clouser/The Center Square

After an individual set fire to two Clark County ballot boxes in October, a Republican state lawmaker filed legislation Tuesday that would create a new security camera grant program. Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, filed two bills on Tuesday: Senate Bill 5010 to create the grant program and Senate Bill 5011 to update what’s written on ballot boxes. While seemingly minor, the proposal follows ballot tampering leading up to the Nov. 5 general election that destroyed hundreds of ballots. The first incident happened on Oct. 8 when someone put an “improvised incendiary device” on a Clark County ballot box, setting fire to the ballots inside. Then, on Oct. 28, just over a week from the election, someone did the same to another Clark County box and one in Portland, Oregon. Read Article

Washington: Hundreds of damaged ballots saved following fire at drop box | Dani Anguiano/The Guardian

Officials in south-west Washington were able to salvage almost 500 damaged ballots from a ballot box that was set on fire on Monday in what officials have called an attack on democracy ahead of a contentious US election. An unknown number of ballots were destroyed when someone placed incendiary devices in a drop box in Vancouver, Washington, while three ballots were damaged in a fire at a box in nearby Portland, Oregon. Those fires and one other are linked, officials have said. Workers in Washington will begin searching through the damaged ballots for voter information in order to contact people about getting a new ballot, said Greg Kimsey, the Clark county auditor. Workers should be able to collect information from the ballots despite the damage, he said. The attacks are under investigation by the FBI as well as state and local officials. Read Article

Washington laws aim to detect cyber attacks and protect election workers  | Jerry Cornfield/News From The States

Washington state is implementing new laws to safeguard election workers and enhance the security of ballot counting ahead of the 2024 campaign season. One law increases penalties for harassing election officials, while another mandates certain security measures on election equipment and allows the Secretary of State to certify results in specific situations. A third law aims to reduce rejected ballots by improving voter signature protections and standardizing ballot return envelope designs. Read Article

Washington Governor Signs Three Elections Bills | Matt Cohen/Democracy Docket

Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed three election-related bills into law last week aimed at facilitating voting and enhancing election security. These bills, introduced at the request of Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, expand the ease of certifying elections, maintain voter registration information, and introduce security measures against cyber hacking and election interference. Senate Bill 5843 allows the secretary of state to certify election results in counties where canvassing boards refuse to do so without reason, while House Bill 1962 eliminates the requirement for voters moving within the state to re-register. Another bill, Senate Bill 6269, initiates a pilot program for counties to test new options for signature verification on ballots, addressing concerns about the error-prone nature of current verification methods. Read Article

Washington lawmakers advance bill making it a felony to threaten election workers | Hallie Golden/Associated Press

The Washington state Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill making harassing election workers a felony, prompted by recent incidents, including envelopes containing suspicious powder, some testing positive for fentanyl, which forced the evacuation of four county election offices. The legislation aims to protect election workers amid rising threats, attributed to false claims about the 2020 election. The bill increases penalties for harassment and provides targeted workers with address confidentiality. Read Article

Washington state braces for deepfakes ahead of 2024 elections | Dyer Oxley/KUOW

Washington state’s Secretary of State, Steve Hobbs, is warning voters to remain vigilant against artificial intelligence and deepfakes as the 2024 elections intensify. The caution follows recent robocalls in New Hampshire mimicking President Biden’s voice, urging voters to skip the primary. Hobbs, anticipating potential frauds as the state’s March 12 primary approaches, emphasizes the need for vigilance and skepticism, urging voters to verify information from trusted sources. Washington passed new election laws in 2023 addressing AI, deepfakes, and misinformation, making it one of the first states to prohibit the use of “synthetic media” in campaigns, with a requirement for reporting false or manipulated media usage. Read Article

Washington House backs tougher penalties for threatening election workers | Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard

Washington lawmakers renewed their push Thursday to increase criminal penalties for harassment of election workers. The state House of Representatives, on an 86-11 vote, approved House Bill 1241 to make it a class C felony for a person to threaten election officials with injury through words or conduct. Today, such behavior carries a lesser penalty of a gross misdemeanor. The same bill cleared the House on a 90-7 vote last session but lapsed in the Senate. It is expected to receive a hearing in the Senate in early February. Read Article

Washington GOP fights secretary of state’s effort to track election misinformation | Jim Brunner/The Seattle Times

The Washington State Republican Party has filed a formal complaint against Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, accusing him of violating the constitution and his oath of office by contracting British artificial intelligence company Logically for nearly $273,000 to monitor social media for harmful narratives and threats related to Washington elections. The GOP claims the effort amounts to “political surveillance,” allowing Hobbs to suppress free speech on a massive scale. Hobbs defends the contract, stating that the posts being monitored are public, rejecting claims of suppressing free speech, and emphasizing the importance of countering misinformation. Read Article

Washington: For the second year in a row, three counties reportedly go against state election security suggestion | Ellen Dennis/The Spokesman-Review

A week before elections, Washington state election officials are struggling to persuade three counties to implement a security device called an Albert sensor, which uses artificial intelligence to monitor network traffic for suspicious activity. While 36 out of 39 counties have installed the Albert sensor, Grant, Ferry, and Lincoln counties have not, citing concerns about its effectiveness and cost. The Secretary of State has expressed worry about these counties ignoring state and federal advice regarding the sensors, emphasizing that they are the Homeland Security standard for internet security. The sensors, created by the Center for Internet Security, do not block threats but send alerts when suspicious activity is detected. Read Article

Washington: King County bolsters election security amid intimidation to workers nationwide | Michelle Esteban/KOMO

Election workers across the United States, including those in King County, are facing unprecedented levels of intimidation, with reported threats and harassment causing some workers to leave their jobs. The rise of misinformation since 2020 has contributed to this hostile environment, leading election administrators to take enhanced safety measures for the 2024 presidential election. In…

Washington: A Pair of Election Deniers Are Running To Take Over County Election Offices | Cameron Joseph/Bolts

Robert Sutherland and Doug Basler, both Republicans, are running against nonpartisan election administrators in an attempt to gain control of two major county election offices in Washington state. Their campaigns are elevating false claims about the election system, which could contribute to a hostile environment for election workers and undermine voters’ trust in the fairness of elections. Despite being long shots to win, their candidacies could increase the risk of harassment faced by election workers. Basler has questioned the integrity of the voting system and advocated for hand-counting paper ballots, while Sutherland has promoted conspiracy theories and expressed distrust in the election system. The ongoing candidacies of candidates like Basler and Sutherland contribute to the challenges faced by election administrators. Read Article

Washington elections bill ‘more likely to cause insurrection’ | TJ Martinell/The Center Square

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has signed Senate Bill 5459 into law, which restricts public access to records regarding ballots and the election system, claiming it will enhance election security. The bill exempts cast ballots from public records requests and centralizes all local records requests with the Secretary of State’s office. Critics argue that the legislation is a significant overreaction to public records requests made after the 2020 election and lacks legitimate justification for keeping this information secret. They express concerns that the bill reduces transparency, erodes trust in elections, and undermines the importance of open access to information. Read Article

Washington worries as election deniers target the U.S. voter database | Joseph O’Sullivan/Crosscut

In 2012, Washington and several other states helped form a nonprofit to help clean voter rolls and improve the accuracy of voter registration nationwide. Since then, the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC, has allowed participating states to share and match voter data in an effort to tamp down fraud. That valuable system, which helped the Secretary of State’s Office update more than 175,000 Washington voter records last year, is about to have its legs cut off. Election deniers are dragging the low-key and low-profile work into the morass of attacks on voting systems and election integrity after former President Donald Trump – who has repeated false claims that he won the 2020 election – lashed out against the system. Top election officials in Missouri, Florida and West Virginia earlier this month announced they would no longer work with the program, according to The Associated Press. Alabama previously announced it would leave the system, and Louisiana pulled out last year. Now, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and others are worried that their job keeping voter lists up-to-date and avoiding fraud will become harder if more states refuse to share and analyze voter rolls that could weed out people who have died, or may be voting multiple times in different states.

Full Article: As election deniers target the U.S. voter database, WA worries | Crosscut

Washington: Some Republicans in state cast a wary eye on an election security device | Miles Parks/NPR

In northeast Washington state, a remote region nestled against the Canadian border, the politics lean conservative and wariness of government runs high. Earlier this year, a Republican-led county commission there made a decision that rippled across Washington — triggering alarm at the secretary of state’s office, and now among cybersecurity experts who have worked for the past six years to shore up the security of America’s voting systems. It happened on Valentine’s Day during the regular weekly meeting of the three-member commission in Ferry County, where Donald Trump received more than 63% of the vote in the 2020 election. After an agenda that included an update on the county fair and a discussion about a local water and sewer district, the commissioners took up a proposal to disconnect a recently installed cybersecurity device from the county’s computer network. The device, known as an Albert sensor, was designed to alert local governments to potential hacking attempts against their networks. More than 900 Albert sensors have been deployed across the country, primarily to states and counties, and they have been a key component of the federal government’s cybersecurity response following Russian election interference around the 2016 election.

Full Article: Election security device under suspicion by Washington GOP : NPR

Washington: King County Elections asks sheriff to investigate GOP activists’ ballot-box ‘surveillance’ as potential voter intimidation | Jim Brunner/The Seattle Times

Calling it an attempt at voter intimidation, King County Elections Director Julie Wise requested the sheriff’s office investigate people who planted signs near ballot boxes warning voters they were “under surveillance.” In a statement Tuesday evening, Wise blasted what she called an effort to scare voters. “I believe this is a targeted, intentional strategy to intimidate and dissuade voters from using secure ballot drop boxes. My team is not going to stand by and allow any group to seed fear and doubt amongst our residents and voters, especially not when they are simply trying to make their voices heard,” Wise said. The signs in question were posted near ballot boxes in several Seattle and Eastside locations, with red letters warning the boxes were “under surveillance” and implying criminal consequences “for harvesting or depositing ballots” for pay. The signs included a scannable QR code that linked to a King County Republican Party website and form encouraging people to submit “incident reports” documenting allegedly suspicious activity. Wise noted voter intimidation is outlawed by both state and federal law.

Full Article: King County Elections asks sheriff to investigate GOP activists’ ballot-box ‘surveillance’ as potential voter intimidation | The Seattle Times

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman will be named to Biden administration election-security post | Jim Brunner/The Seattle Times

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman is expected to be named to a key election-security position in the Biden administration, according to a report by CNN. Wyman, a Republican, is set to be appointed to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to protect elections from foreign and domestic interference, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources. Wyman’s office did not immediately dispute the CNN report. “The Office of the Secretary of State cannot confirm the information included in the CNN article,” Wyman spokesperson Kylee Zabel said in an email. Wyman didn’t respond to interview requests, and Zabel said she would not be available on Monday. Potential appointees in presidential administrations are often told not to talk until their role is formally announced. If she does take the new position, Wyman would be charged with leading DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CNN reported, saying the appointment would not be official until White House paperwork is completed. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The reported appointment would put Wyman, a nationally regarded expert on mail-in balloting and security, in a position working with elections officials across the U.S. at a time when many of her fellow Republicans have followed former President Donald Trump in fanning baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

Full Article: Report: Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman will be named to Biden administration election-security post | The Seattle Times

Washington State House passes bill to exempt certain election security information from public records disclosure | Laurel Demkovich/The Spokesman-Review

A bill that would exempt certain election security information from public records disclosures passed the state House of Representatives Wednesday. After an election that brought up questions of security, the bill aims to keep certain election procedures and plans of continuity unavailable to the public. Sponsor Rep. Laurie Dolan, D-Olympia, called it “an election integrity issue.” Election security information and contingency plans should not be provided “as a road map” to the bad actors who want to harm elections, Dolan said. “We need to secure our elections from bad actors in order to have truthworthy results,” she said. The bill passed 61-37, with many Republicans saying they oppose exempting more from the Public Records Act, which requires all state and local governmental entities to make public records available to the public.

Full Article: State House passes bill to exempt certain election security information from public records disclosure | The Spokesman-Review

Washington: Latino voters have higher than average ballot signature rejection rates in state | Joy Borkholder/InvestigateWest

Marissa Reyes still doesn’t understand why her signature would cause her August 2020 Benton County primary ballot to be tossed out. A letter from the county elections office challenging her signature came to her house in her hometown of Prosser. But Reyes had left for New York, where she had just finished college. Confused, neither Reyes nor her parents had the time to figure it all out before her ballot was rejected. “I definitely felt annoyed and a little apathetic, but definitely not surprised,” Reyes recalled. Fast-forward to November 2020, when the ballots of nearly 24,000 registered Washington voters were not counted because officials judged their ballot signatures to not match the signature on file, which is often the signature from their driver’s license. And in the eight Washington counties with the largest share of potential Latino voters, Hispanic-sounding names, like Reyes, are nearly four times more likely than other voters to have their ballot rejected for a signature mismatch, according to an InvestigateWest analysis of four recent elections. The curiously high rate of disenfranchisement among Latino voters could mean altered election outcomes.

Full Article: Latino voters have higher than average ballot signature rejection rates in Washington state | InvestigateWest