Election skeptics try new strategy targeting voter registrations in Washington

THURSTON COUNTY, Wash. — Election skeptics are trying a new tactic to uncover cases of voter fraud in Washington. They’ve filed formal voter registration challenges against dozens of voters that they suspect could be illegally registered.

Registration challenges are filed with county elections offices and require officials to investigate the claim and determine if a voter’s registration is legitimate.

“If they think that the person is registered illegally or they no longer reside at their address, any citizen can bring a challenge for that voter,” said Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall, who runs the county elections office.

The Thurston County Voter Research Project (VRP) has filed 28 challenges with Hall’s office since June.

VRP’s volunteer citizens scour election records and other public documents to identify suspicious voters. Typically, they use postal records to determine a voter’s mailing address and compare it to the registered address where the voter receives a ballot. If the addresses don’t match, VRP flags the voter and may pay a visit to the address to find out who actually lives there.

Washington’s vote-by-mail system requires voters to register the address where they live. In 2021, VRP informed Thurston County Elections it identified 2,164 voter registration anomalies in county records and that it was visiting addresses.

“They looked like they were official enough to me.  So, I’m like, whatever,” said Angela Donovan, who signed an affidavit when a VRP canvasser came to her door in April. She signed a statement confirming that her mother-in-law no longer lived in her Lacey home, even though it was still her registered address.

“I mean I signed the thing saying she wasn’t living her (anymore),” Donovan said. She said her mother-in-law has been living in California.

The challenge to Donovan’s mother-in-law went to a hearing in July presided over by the auditor and other officials. VRP presented its evidence, and a member of the elections staff reported on information that she collected in the months since the challenge was filed.

The staff member said she was able to do something that VRP had not: She reached Donovan’s mother-in-law by phone in California.

“She’s tending to her 91-year-old father. She does say she’ll be coming back to Thurston County,” the staff member reported during the hearing. Donovan’s mother-in-law told KING 5 she was upset that her voter registration was being questioned because she has not voted in any other state and plans to move back to Washington. She declined an on-camera interview request.

Based on information that her residence is still in Washington State, the county denied VRP’s petition to revoke her voter registration.

But VRP has not lost all its challenges.

VRP has filed 28 challenges this year. Of nine hearings so far, 5 challenges have been sustained. Four cases, including Donovan’s mother-in-law, have been denied. 

The county auditor says none of the cases involve anyone who actually cast an inappropriate ballot.

“We have not found any instance where somebody has voted illegally or there’s something nefarious going on,” said Hall.

Voter Research Project says five sustained challenges, in a county with nearly 200,000 registered voters, is worth the effort that volunteers are putting in.

“I would say that we’re just getting started,” said John Clabaugh, the organizer of VRP’s efforts in Thurston County.  “We have hundreds of cases that we’re actively looking at right now,” he said. He anticipates filing more challenges than the 28 that are before the county right now.

Clabaugh is a certified fraud examiner and former investigator for the State of Washington. Like many of VRP’s volunteers, he was motivated by Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. “I think there’s ample evidence of irregularities in states like Arizona, Minnesota (and) Georgia,” Clabaugh said. 

In other Washington counties, VRP reports have been used to claim widespread incompetence or corruption in elections. Last year, KING 5’s “Fraud Crusade” investigation revealed that these reports were largely full of errors, misunderstandings or incomplete information. The television station did not find a single case of voter fraud that had not already been uncovered by elections security measures.

“For me, I’m not going to say ‘fraud’ until I have some actual proof that convinces me in my professional opinion that there was likely something fraudulent here,” said Clabaugh of VRP’s Thurston County efforts.

Of the five sustained challenges brought by VRP, one involves a subject that many elections skeptics say is a widespread problem:  Non-citizens voting in elections.

Clabaugh’s first challenge targeted a college student in Olympia who was a green card holder yet was registered to vote.  Non-citizens are not allowed to cast ballots in Washington elections.

“There are non-citizens on our voter rolls.  How are they getting there?” Clabaugh asked.

Elections records show that the college student was on the county’s radar before VRP filed a challenge. His registration status was “inactive”, and the student never attempted to vote. Auditor Hall says that sometimes non-citizens are registered when they sign up for a driver’s license and the Department of Licensing mistakenly enrolls them into the State’s motor/voter program.

“We have not found any instance where somebody has voted illegally, or there’s something nefarious going on,” said Hall.