OLYMPIA, Wash. — Bills from both parties would increase oversight in Washington’s elections, but in very different ways.
Senate Bill 5382, sponsored by Sen. Javier Valdez (D-Seattle) would require initiative signature gatherers to sign a legally binding declaration that to the best of their knowledge, no one was paid to sign the petition and all of the petitioners read the ballot measure or referendum.
It would also require the Secretary of State to check each address on the petition against voter registration records and reject any signature where the addresses don’t match.
“Since the mid-2000s our initiative petitions have included an attestation that the person who was turning in the petition sheet circulated the petition themselves and that to the best of their knowledge every person who signed reviewed the sheet and no one will sign without any kind of compensation and then information on the sheet is true or correct, but it hasn’t been clear that these declarations need to be signed,” said Valdez during committee testimony. “And second, this bill ensures that petition signatures include a voter registration address which will help our election officials with another key tool to confirm that the individuals and people signing are real, eligible Washington voters.”
“The lack of verification combined with the fact that signature gathers may be paid which I know isn’t addressed in this bill and that they are not required to sign a declaration holding them accountable creates a perception of a system that fails to prevent corruption or fraud,” said bill supporter Marenne Franich during committee testimony.
“We don’t require this for people when they’re voting, we don’t require this when we are voting we don’t require them to swear that they actually read the ballot pamphlet before they can vote and again that seems a ridiculously high hurdle to put on the signature gathering process,” said bill opponent Brian Heywood during committee testimony.
SB 5382 stalled before a key legislative deadline and is unlikely to advance.
The National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the motor voter law, requires all states to provide opportunities to register to vote at offices that process applications for public assistance and offices that handle driver’s license applications.
Washington’s motor voter law has been in place since 1990.
House Joint Memorial 4007, sponsored by Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) would invite “the United States Department of Justice to audit and review the Department of Licensing’s implementation of the Motor Voter Law which linked the processes of driver licensing and voter registration.
“The default position under the automatic voter registration is to register the individual to vote,” said Walsh. “Right now, it’s unclear that there’s any reliable, rigorous due diligence to make sure that the people who are registered to vote are actually citizens and can legally vote.”
Walsh says unintentionally registering to vote could make someone ineligible to attain citizenship.
“Another thing to keep in mind about this automatic voter registration when you get a driver’s license or an ID card is the state takes very little responsibility for any bad outcome of someone being registered to vote. If they’re not a legal voter, they basically wash their hands of it and all the risk is on the individual person,” said Walsh.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a May 2021 policy manual update to address unintentional voter registration by naturalization applicants.
In 2018, House Bill 2595 established automatic voter registration for applicants of enhanced driver’s licenses and also set forth state protections for unintentional registration by ineligible voters.
In response to a request for comment the Department of Licensing issued a written statement with background on law that created the program.
- “It requires DOL to verify that driver license and ID card applicants meet the requirements to be a registered voter. When that’s done, we send the information to the OSOS for confirmation and registration. We work closely with OSOS to ensure we adhere to the laws enacted by the Legislature. We have no comment on the proposed resolution,” said Nathan Olson, Digital Communications and Outreach Director, Department of Licensing.
HJM 4007 died without receiving a public hearing, but Walsh said the Trump administration is aware of the requested audit.
During an appearance on The Impact, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs weighed in on the various election related bills proposed by both parties.
Hobbs does not support SB 5382’s additional layers of vetting initiative petitions.
“You know, the proposal was, well, if someone doesn’t put their address on there, they’d be invalidated. Or if they put a different address on there, that wasn’t where they’re at, so for example, a college student puts their dorm address, but doesn’t put their voter registration address that’d be invalidated,” said Hobbs.
“What people need to understand is when we get their signature and their printed name, we can check exactly where they live. We can verify if they’re a Washington state voter. The state constitution, in terms of these initiatives, says all you’ve got to be is a Washington state voter. And so getting that message across to the legislators, was important to do that,” he continued.
“I think what happened was, there was some folks upset that these initiatives went forward and went to the ballot, and maybe they were trying to find a way to slow this process down through, perhaps not thinking that these signatures were somehow not valid.”
The state elections chief does not see any justification for modifying the motor voter framework either.
“This is an example where people just don’t have all the facts. So you have this initiative signature bill, which came from the left and on the right you have this particular policy item. I mean, the fact of the matter is, if you get an enhanced driver’s license, you know, you’re already verified when you get it. Just a regular driver’s license, you have to attest to, that you’re a citizen or not, then you have to sign. Now, that’s the way we’ve always done it. That’s the way other states usually do it and it is a class C felony. And the great thing about the state of Washington with our voter database is that we talk to other databases. And so if there’s a non-citizen we’re going to catch them,” said Hobbs.