Democrats threaten to sue Washington secretary of state

OLYMPIA – State Democrats are threatening to sue Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman, saying that her decision to send clarification letters to hundreds of voters in response to an inexact translation in voter pamphlets is not enough.

At issue is a mistranslation could potentially lead those who were convicted of a misdemeanor to believe they were ineligible to vote.

The letter sent Monday by a lawyer representing the Washington State Democratic Central Committee tells Wyman that in order to avoid legal action, by Nov. 2 she must mail a mailer to every household that received an incorrectly translated voter guide to correctly identify the state’s voter qualifications in both English and Spanish. They also want her to distribute the corrected translation to public libraries that received the Spanish language voter guide.

On Friday, Wyman said she was sending a total of 647 letters to voters who have been convicted of a misdemeanor and are still under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.