This article was originally published at All Things Politics the Substack page by Bill Bruch.
Until July 2023, the public could get any WA State county’s most updated list of registered voters via Public Records Request. E.g., for Skagit County it would normally take between 3 hours to 3 days to have the list emailed from the elections dept. The list is constantly being updated each day in all 39 counties.
However, now the public is prohibited from getting these daily updated lists. The whole process is now centralized and controlled by the state due to new state law 5459 in coordination with the Secretary of State (SOS). If you want a county registered voter list, you will only get a monthly update on the first of each month. 30- day windows are now plenty of time for nefarious actors (undetected) to add or remove “registered” voters if needed in an election, even as a safety back-up “credit line” – which according to many data analysts is happening all around the country.
NEW LAWS THAT ELIMINATE HONEST AND TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS
We should not be surprised about this lack of transparency. Last year Stuart Holmes, the WA State SOS Deputy of Elections, amended WAC 434-335-260 (effective July 2022) making 3rd party audits impossible: Decertification of voting systems and vote tabulating systems. To read:
(i) County auditors shall not provide physical, electronic, or internal access to third parties seeking to copy and/or conduct an examination of state-certified voting systems, or any components of such systems including, but not limited to: Voting software and systems, tabulators, scanners, counters, automatic tabulating equipment, voting devices, servers, ballot marking devices, paper ballot printers, portable memory media devices, and any other hardware, software, or devices being used as part of the voting system.
And if the county auditor does have a third-party audit? Then…
(ii) those pieces of voting equipment will be considered no longer secure or reliable to use in subsequent elections. And it will be treated as a security breach under RCW 29A.12.180 and the office of the Secretary of State can decertify the use of the system or component.
In other words, our voting systems are now closed to the public, just trust us…
MORE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE CORRUPTION
Also, last year the WA State SOS made several very troubling amendments to statutes, changing the definition of a Cast Vote Record (CVR) to be a “ballot” – and mandating that copies of CVRs used during Risk Limiting Audits be destroyed within 10 days of the certification of the election.
Definitions.
As used in this rule, unless stated otherwise:
(5) “Cast vote record” or “CVR” means a record of all ((votes))voter markings produced by a single voter on a ballot card, presented in electronic form, and is defined as a ballot in accordance with RCW 29A.04.008.
434-261-116 Preparing for a risk-limiting audit.
(7) Comparison audit uploads.)) at the time the unofficial results are produced. (8) Copies of cast vote records used during the risk-limiting audit will be destroyed no later than 10 days following county certification.
This clearly violates Federal Laws 52 USC 20701 and 42 USC 1974, which requires all election records to be kept for 22 months, and violates State Laws RCW 29A.60.110, WAC 434-262-200 and WAC 434-261-045.
Conveniently, the passing of 5459 also now makes Cast Vote Records (CVRs) unavailable to the public. These new laws foster election fraud and are covering up the fraud in our elections!
It is quite interesting the WA State Democrat Controlled Legislature and the Democrat Controlled WA State Secretary of State keep changing statutes and policies making it easier for bad guys to cheat and harder to catch them!
WHY CAST VOTE RECORDS ARE SO IMPORTANT
CVRs are records of each election that shows how each of the recorded votes came in for each of the candidates, in essence it is a way to replay the election in real-time. This is the best and easiest way to audit an election to see if it was legitimate.
The CVR is a report generated by the actual voting machines that show cumulative votes and how they add up in series. There are several different types of CVRs that record many specifications for multiple variables in an election. They are digital records of all the votes for candidates and measures for the ballots cast in an election. I am talking about the type of CVR that shows lists, rows, and columns in spreadsheet format. It shows the unidentified voter selections that were tabulated on one combined record. They are NOT ballots and are NOT ballot images. They are interpreted data sets of what the voter put on the ballot. They are listed in order by time of vote cast during the entire election and a good way to re-play and audit an election. Here is an example of a CVR.
Disclosing CVRs via a Public Records Request does NOT violate the original intention of the State Constitution, which reads:
WA STATE CONSTITUTION ART 6 SEC. 6 BALLOT. All elections shall be by ballot. The legislature shall provide for such METHOD OF VOTING as will secure to every elector absolute secrecy in PREPARING AND DEPOSITING HIS BALLOT.
In actuality, Cast Vote Records provide voters Absolute Secrecy in Preparing and Depositing their Ballots. To say CVR’s are “Ballots” is lunacy…THIS LAW COVERS UP ELECTION FRAUD CRIMES!
States like Texas, California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and others have no problem providing Cast Vote Records to the public. So, what is Washington State trying to hide by denying CVRs to the public?
ANOTHER FRIGHTENING NEW ELECTION LAW CHANGE
One of the ways Election Integrity data analysts were able to prove that illegal ballots were being cast in elections was showing that a registered voter with the same name and date of birth voted in two different counties or states. Hundreds of examples were found in Washington state in the 2020 and 2022 elections. However, under new law 5112 the date of birth is no longer available; only the year of birth is provided, making it virtually impossible to prove fraudulent votes. This will make it much harder to prove the ghost voters are fake, or to prove your deceased relative was credited a vote and will place several other obstacles between transparency and having accurate registration data!
This election law not only gives criminals greater opportunity to cheat, it also makes voter challenges and cleaning the voter rolls much more difficult.
It was already bad enough in WA State when applicants were automatically registered to vote at the DOL while obtaining a driver’s license or ID card in the state. The DOL should not register people to vote. Period! At least people used to be able to decline being a voter if they requested, but under 5112, people ARE NOT allowed to opt-out at the time of service. If they do not wish to register to be a voter or have their registration information updated, they MUST opt-out by mail – requiring a response by mail and completion of a form sent back to the SOS.
Automatically registering voters without an option to opt-out at the time of service means there are people issued ballots (which cost money) who have no interest in voting, and who aren’t looking out for their ballot to arrive by mail. Perfect “Voter” targets for criminals who forge signatures, illegally submitting ballots, without the knowledge of unsuspecting voters.
ANOTHER GREAT LAW FOR CHEATING IN OUR ELECTIONS
5112 makes registering everyone at the DOL automatic. Also, now many other State Gov. offices will be registering EVERYONE POSSIBLE to vote (including non-citizens). Unbelievably, the new law declares every government agency employee that registers voters to be “election officials” even if they are health care providers. This will further corrupt the voter rolls with ineligible voters.
These voters are shared with ERIC (a 3rd party national centralized data base) and can be used (in other states) by nefarious actors adjusting the name and / or mailing address ever so slightly. These types of bills are appearing all over the U.S. (like Colorado) and many are written by Voting Machine Vendors, Nat. Assoc of SOS / Auditors, and Special Interest Lobby Groups, etc.
5208 is ANOTHER NEW ELECTION FRAUD BILL that will allow anyone to ONLY use the last 4 digits of a social security number to register to vote online. This new “made for criminals” law requires no I.D. verification! An applicant’s “oath” is the only “verification” – often our personal data is easily found or hacked online and this info could be easily used to register people unknowingly. And, the many Powers-That-Be know this!
The sale of American SS numbers through dark channels is a booming business that rakes in millions for criminals. Article
ELIMINATING TRANSPARENCY
5082 Abolishes Advisory Votes! In WA State voters got an opportunity to weigh in on taxes that were passed by the Legislature without their direct approval. “Advisory Votes” were often the only time voters hear of a new tax. Since 2012, advisory votes on 38 tax increases have appeared on the ballot. Why would Democrats pass a bill that would abolish advisory votes? Perhaps it is because most every time voters got an opportunity to go on record, they overwhelmingly VOTE AGAINST RAISING TAXES BY HUGE MARGINS. In truth Dems just don’t like what voters have to say and falsely claim (without ANY supporting data) that banning advisory votes would encourage more voter participation. Hmm…In truth this eliminates Democracy. The answer is to listen to the voters instead of stealing their voice…What a Concept!
5153 removes transparency by making statistical information related to future voters under the age of 18 unavailable to the public for PRR. 16 year-olds can register to vote and 17 year-olds can vote in a primary election if they are 18 for the general election. With all due respect to our youth, folks under the age of 18 should not be voting because of the “elector” qualification requirements in the 26th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and Article VI of the WA State Constitution.
Also, don’t forget 1048: “Enhancing” The Washington Voting Rights Act (WVRA). Enacted in 2018, the WVRA “regulates elections” in counties, cities, towns, school districts, fire protection districts, port districts, and public utility districts. 1048 changes the WVRA to allow special rights to “protected classes” of groups, allow non-citizens to have the legal standing of a voter and arbitrarily penalizes certain groups of people. This change further erodes trust in WA State’s elections.
SOLUTION: VOTE OUT THE WA STATE DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE AND SOS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
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 RNC National Convention Delegate.
