WA State Legislature Democrats’ (aka “The Anyone From Anywhere Can Vote Party”) latest ploy to register everyone possible to vote is now at warp speed with their proposed legislation SB 5077: Concerning expansion of voter registration services by government agencies. The new law would significantly expand voter registration services (way beyond the DMV) to include many other federal, state, local, and tribal government agencies.
Yes, more state-imposed "automatic voter registration” (AVR), plus widening the scope of AVR by extending it to more organizations and agencies.
Grants authority to the Health Benefit Exchange to provide Health Plan Finder information to the Secretary of State (SoS) to facilitate voter registration, contingent on federal approval.
Requires the Governor to decide which additional local, state, federal,
and tribal agencies may offer automatic voter registration.
Federally recognized tribes may request the Governor designate certain state facilities or programs to provide voter registration services.
Governor decides whether to require certain state agencies to provide public assistance or services to persons with disabilities to implement AVR.
Department of Corrections clarification to provide voter registration services.
Governor & SoS decide whether state agencies that: (1) collect, possess, and store personal information—names, residential addresses, dates of birth, attestation signatures, and citizenship verification via social security data match; or (2) collect, possess, and store names, residential addresses, and DOB - implement AVR.
Governor & SoS decide on local, federal, or tribal agencies, including but not limited to federal agencies administering naturalization ceremonies, provided that such agencies consent to implement AVR or automatic updates of existing voter registrations.
Each state agency designated shall provide voter registration services for employees and the public within each agency's office.
Each institution of higher education shall put an active prompt on its course registration website or similar website that students actively and regularly use to link the student to the SoS voter registration website.
Creates a SoS “Whitelist” to allow approved entities to embed the VoteWA portal in their agency and website to perform online voter registration.
ISSUES WITH SB 5077
It is already very easy to register to vote; instead, we must shore up election security!
Sundry government agencies should not be involved in voter registration; this makes the process less secure and controlled.
This law would make election security issues worse; it introduces more variables, complications, and possible pitfalls, including questionable citizenship verification that could allow cheating.
New voters are shared with ERIC - a 3rd party national centralized database.
Potential problems with the early under-18 voter registration and conflicts with automatic registration (opt-out) when a student registers for college.
It will only increase the problems of mass mailed-out ballots and add to the difficulty of maintaining and purging the voter rolls.
Voter registration should ONLY be an “opt-in” process (personal choice). People should not be forced to “opt-out” of voter registration (like at the DOL). It leads to voters on rolls that should not be - improper ballots being mailed out, and possible voter and election fraud!
IMPORTANT: Last year, the Democrats passed SSB 5112, declaring that gov agency employees are now "Election Officials" - Amending RCW 29A.04.058 to redefine: "Election official" when pertaining to voter registration includes any staff member of the office of the secretary of state, staff of state agencies or offices providing voter registration services, or a staff member of a county auditor's office.
This led to RCW 29A.08.355 and 29A.08.362: That made sure that these new gov agency staff “Election Officials” were left off the hook if they registered someone accidentally; for them, it is NOT a crime, and if a voter votes an incorrect ballot from one of their forgiven mistakes, that is also NOT a crime!
Hmm… How is it that government agency staff members who are unelected can function as “Election Officials” - and if “Mistakes” are made, they all get free passes with no accountability?
SB 5077 (like its predecessor SSB 5112) is riddled with problems - let’s hope the bill dies in the 2025 legislative session! PLEASE LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD - Contact your Representatives (link here). The 5077 Executive Session is scheduled for 8:30 am Friday, March 28 (TVW Link Here).
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