OLYMPIA — A Republican lawmaker hopes to draw the attention of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump to voter registration practices in Washington.
Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, introduced House Joint Memorial 4007 Monday morning — calling for a federal audit of the state Department of Licensing’s implementation of the “motor voter law,” citing concerns that ineligible voters are being added to the voter registration database.
Trump and GOP members across the country have made claims of widespread election fraud in recent years. Walsh’s call for a review of Washington’s voter registration practices comes as Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would require people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote.
Joint Memorials are legislative documents that express concern, often to Congress or federal agencies, about a specific issue. They are subject to the same cutoffs as bills, which means barring a change to the House rules, HJM 4007 will not get a hearing this session. Regardless, it “doesn’t have to be heard in the Legislature to be heard,” says Walsh, chair of the state Republican Party.
“I am optimistic that we can draw the attention of the president and the U.S. attorney general and maybe the Department of Homeland Security about some of our bad policies here,” Walsh said.
He said the “bad policies” go beyond the state’s voter registration practices and include immigration sanctuary policies, among others.
In the document, Walsh asked for the audit to focus on the Department of Licensing’s implementation of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly referred to as the Motor Voter Vehicle Act. It also asks Bondi to take “any corrective action she deems appropriate” in response to the audit without further consultation with Washington representatives.
The federal law, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, allowed American citizens to register to vote at the DMV. The state Legislature also passed an automatic voter registration law in 2018.
The 2018 law allows eligible individuals providing proof of U.S. citizenship to a Washington state agency for an Enhanced Driver’s License, or other approved transaction, to automatically be registered to vote.
Walsh said that under this system, voters are being added to the registration base without confirming their eligibility. “No state agency confirms that people registered to vote through the Motor Voter Act are legal citizens and legal voters,” Walsh said.
Rep. Sharlett Mena, D-Tacoma, said there are no gaps in the system and information is only added to the registered voter database if an individual has already provided proof of citizenship. The Washington Secretary of State’s Office, which did not respond to a request for comment Monday, confirms this on its website.
Mena also said individuals who aren’t eligible to vote don’t want to accidentally be registered because doing so could pose a threat to their current status or ability to obtain permanent residency. “This idea that people are clamoring to get registered to vote is inaccurate,” Mena said.
Instances of voter fraud are “extremely rare” according to Scott Lemieux, professor of political science at the University of Washington. Most of the time, individual cases of voter fraud are accidents.
“The burden of proof is on the people making the claim,” Lemieux said.
Lemieux said he sees the HJM as symbolic. It’s “trying to support claims made by the president, the speaker of the House and the attorney general about voting fraud,” he said.
