On Sept 5, 2024, the Washington State Republican Party (WAGOP) and their attorney Joel Ard filed a lawsuit claiming ballots “cured” by King County appear to be invalid, after they used the OmniBallot system in the hand recount for second place in the race for Washington State Commissioner of Public lands.
Thank you to the WAGOP and Mr. Ard for doing this. Voters should be thankful and encouraged that the WAGOP is making efforts to strengthen and improve our elections.
WA is an all mail-in state and when a voter forgets to sign the envelope containing their ballot or when the signature on the envelope does not match what is on record, “ballot curing” is necessary. This is the process of informing a voter to fix/cure their signature, so their vote is counted, per WAC 434-261-053.
In the lawsuit the WAGOP says King County illegally used an online tool that helped voters fix problems with their ballot, and that it affected the outcome in the statewide primary race for public lands commissioner. The lawsuit also alleges that King County Elections Director Julie Wise did not ensure that voter information transmitted over the app had adequate privacy and security protections because the tool is operated by a private company.
The WAGOP claims Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson would have defeated Democrat Dave Upthegrove in the primary race if the app hadn’t been used. The party wants the votes that were “cured” through the app to be invalidated.
King County Elections, which controls 17 of the State’s 49 Legislative Districts, contracted with the leftist third party NGO, ”Democracy Live.” Democracy Live operates the OmniBallot voting system, which used the online/mobile phone web app ballot curing program for the August 6, 2024, WA State Primary Election.
According to the complaint, King County counted 2,092 ballot signature affidavits that were illegally “cured” violating RCW 29A.60.164(4) via Democracy Live’s OmniBallot voting system in the election. If these 2,092 votes were not counted then Upthhegrove would have had a less than one in a billion chance to have finished ahead of Pederson for second position in the race.
After the statewide recount was officially certified Sept 4, 2024, vote results changed slightly but still have Republican Jamie Herrera Beutler and Democrat Dave Upthegrove making the top two general election in November.
The recount indicated a 49-vote margin separating second-place finisher Upthegrove from Pederson, who finished third in the contest. Before the recount the margin originally stood at 51 votes with over 1.9 million votes counted. After consolidating the amended results certified by each of the 39 individual county canvassing boards, Upthegrove gained four votes and Pederson gained six votes.
Variances, such as “overvotes” - “undervotes” and “write-in” votes were identified during the manual recount which also led to the overall changes in most all WA State counties.
Democracy Live's OmniBallot platform is a web-based system for blank ballot delivery, ballot marking, and online voting. A few other states, including Delaware, West Virginia, and New Jersey, allow certain voters to cast votes online using OmniBallot.
Reports say OmniBallot can also be used to mark ballots that will be printed and returned in the mail, the software sends the voter's identity and ballot choices to Democracy Live, an unnecessary risk that jeopardizes a voter and the secret ballot.
Also, Democracy Live can receive sensitive personal information, including voter ID, ballot selections, signature selections and in some cases, even a browser fingerprint, all which could be used for nefarious purposes.
Given the well-established risks of internet voting, it is hard to believe that anyone would use such an extremely insecure web app for ANY type of voting.
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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