Spin Control: Feds step up war over Washington elections with prosecution threat

As if Washington elections officials didn’t have enough to worry about with a state primary less than a month away and an ongoing clash with the U.S. Postal Service hanging fire even as ballots are due to be mailed this week, there’s the new threat of going to jail if any ineligible voter manages to cast a ballot.

The U.S. Justice Department put Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, the state’s chief elections officer, on notice – and by extension the county auditors who serve that function locally – that they could be held “criminally liable” for counting the ballots of anyone who votes when not legally eligible.

A letter and memo last week to Hobbs from the department’s Civil Rights Division, which was posted on the Washington State Standard website, cites the federal statutes covering illegal voting by persons who are not citizens and thus not eligible to vote.

“Moreover, while federal law obviously makes it unlawful for noncitizens to vote in federal elections … state elections officers … could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting any violation of these provisions,” the letter warns. Any elections officer who “knowingly” retains noncitizens on voting rolls or helps them in receiving and casting ballots could be prosecuted.

This is clearly an escalation of the war between the state and the Trump administration over Washington’s vote-by-mail system – one which the feds have primarily lost in recent court battles. Seems unlikely the state will turn over its voter database with all the information the feds want based on this threat.

Asked if she was worried about a possible trip to the slammer in this fight over the election system she’s overseen for a quarter century, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said she’s following the various court cases but hadn’t seen the Justice Department letter and memo.

“I am following whatever the Secretary of State’ office is laying out,” she said. “I’ve got so many other things going on, that isn’t even on my radar.”

But the thought of donning an orange jumpsuit for a while might not be all bad, Dalton said. “I might actually get some sleep.”

A change worth considering

In Spokane, like most Washington counties, elections are run by the auditor’s office, the same one that handles motor vehicle registrations, marriage licenses, document filing, paying bills and doing county payroll.

Elections used to be a job that was busy for parts of the year, mainly July through November for the primary and general, but not so much the rest of the year. That’s changed with the wrangling between the state and the feds, and to a certain extent Democrats and Republicans, over Washington’s all-mail elections.

Were the federal government to try making good on its threat to toss elections officials in jail over illegally cast ballots, that might be the impetus for separating elections out from the other county auditor tasks and creating the elected job of elections director. Probably take a constitutional amendment. Might be good to make such an office nonpartisan, unlike other county offices.

Call for a special session. Again

Nine Republican state senators, including Leonard Christian of Spokane Valley and Mark Schoesler of Ritzville, again pitched the idea of a special legislative session to address rising gasoline prices by lowering some of the state fuel taxes. In a letter to Gov. Bob Ferguson, they asked him to bring lawmakers back so they could have a chance to pause the Climate Commitment Act, which they say adds an estimated 60 cents per gallon to the price at the pump.

That’s unlikely to happen, considering Ferguson just last month celebrated the signing of an agreement to link Washington’s carbon capture market with that of California and Quebec. A special session over gasoline prices could feature some nasty finger -pointing over who is most responsible for the rising costs, the environmental plans of the Democrats or a Republican president’s decision to go to war against Iran.

Earning their paycheck

A special session might be warranted for another reason : giving voters their money’s worth.

This month, all state elected officials, from the governor on down, got a 7% raise, thanks to the special commission that decides those things. Legislators now make just under $72,500 a year, for a job constitutionally listed as part time.

They don’t get paid more whether they are in session or not. It’s true that some legislators treat it as a full-time job, with meetings and constituent services throughout the years.

But the job would still be described as “mostly inside work, no heavy lifting.”