Update on Election Related Bills 03.17.2023

Go to the leg.wa.gov site to read more on these proposals and then submit a comment. Use the “’testify” link to submit a PRO or CON or NEUTRAL position on the bills that are scheduled for “Public Hearing”.   You may also use the link of the bill number to submit a comment to your own legislators on each bill.  My comments follow the “official” title of the bill.

Bills that are scheduled for “executive hearing” you may email the committee members directly.  Find their contact information through the link to the bill information.

Thank you,

Ruth Ryan SCRCC Election Committee chair rryan1776@gmail.com

Senate committee March 14 @ 1:30 pm

Public Hearing

1. ESHB 1048 - Enhancing the Washington voting rights act. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

 "Washington Voting Rights Act" which would allow special rights to special groups, allow non-citizens to vote and arbitrarily penalize certain groups of people. This would further erode election integrity in the state of Washington!  CON

House committee Mar. 14 @ 1:30pm

Public Hearing

1. ESSB 5207 - Concerning campaign contributions by controlled entities. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Controlled entities and owners considered one donor unless LLC files statements.  NEUTRAL

1. SSB 5182 - Concerning procedures and deadlines for candidate filing. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Moves the candidate filing week up to the first week of May.  Makes the election calendar deadlines more crowded. This is leading up to a general change in candidate filing to a much earlier filing time and a much earlier Primary election date.  CON

(cont.)

House committee executive hearing 3/15 @ 1:30pm

1.  E2SSB 5112 - Updating processes related to voter registration. - Another Election Fraud Bill! By automatically registering EVERYONE to vote at the DOL and other State Gov. offices, it 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 US, Colorado, etc. and are coming from the national level, many are written by Voting Machine Vendors, Nat. Assoc of SOS / Auditors, Special Interest Lobby Groups, etc. It also takes away dates of birth of the registered voter and replaces it with only the year of birth on any PRR which makes proving fraudulent duplicate voters virtually impossible! By design this Election law also makes voter challenges and cleaning the voter rolls much more difficult!
2.  ESSB 5152 - Defining synthetic media in campaigns for elective office, and providing relief for candidates and campaigns.- Advertising, political, synthetic media used by candidates, regulating how manipulated pictures or recordings can be used. Looks like a possible GOOD proposal.
3. SSB 5208- Updating the process for online voter registration by allowing voter applicants to provide the last four digits of social security number for authentication. - It is very inexpensive to get social security numbers and then submit false voter registrations.  Regular forms of ID would no longer be required for on-line registrations. A city councilman in CA used their online voter registration system to submit ballots for his own election because the online registrations do not get double checked as a regular routine.   CON
4. ESSB 5284- Concerning campaign finance disclosure. -Changes the PDC filing dates and re-defines a foreign corporation and who/what can purchase ads in a campaign.  Over-all it makes PDC reporting more confusing except for an expert in PDC laws.  CON

Senate committee Mar 17 @ 8am

Public Hearing

1. HB 1020 - Designating the Suciasaurus rex as the official dinosaur of the state of Washington. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Is this just a “let’s have fun” bill?

Executive Session

ESHB 1048 - Enhancing the Washington voting rights act. "Washington Voting Rights Act" which would allow special rights to special groups, allow non-citizens to vote and arbitrarily penalize certain groups of people. This would further erode election integrity in the state of Washington!   CON

Bills that have public hearing scheduled but were removed from executive hearing schedule for the time being:

ESSB 5082 - Encouraging electoral participation and making ballots more meaningful by abolishing advisory votes. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Removes advisory votes on taxing issues from the ballot.  CON

ESSB 5207 - Concerning campaign contributions by controlled entities. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Controlled entities and owners considered one donor unless LLC files statements.  NEUTRAL

SSB 5182 - Concerning procedures and deadlines for candidate filing. (Remote Testimony Available). - Testify

Moves the candidate filing week up to the first week of May.  Makes the election calendar deadlines more crowded. This is leading up to a general change in candidate filing to a much earlier filing time and a much earlier Primary election date.  CON

These bills are still alive and we should watch for hearings to come up for them in the near future and be prepared to testify.

1241 Adding harassment against election officials to class C felony

1330 PDC Foreign national statements

1335 Bill to penalize "doxing"

5153 Disclosure of future voters records

5459 Codifies White court case / limits our access