PASCO — With less than 30 days to go in the Nov. 5 general election, a county auditor and state representative want to intervene in an effort to sweep away the constitutional residency requirement to vote.
Franklin County Auditor Matt Beaton of Pasco and 19th Legislative District Rep. Jim Walsh of Aberdeen, both Republicans, are seeking to require to state elections officials to follow the state Constitution or go about a legal change to residency requirements.
At issue is the unilateral decision by Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, King County Auditor Julie Wise and Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall, all Democrats, who agreed to remove the 30-day attestation from voter registrations.
The trio had the language stricken in a back room deal with the political action committee, Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans, after the organization filed suit.
Hobbs, Hall and Wise signed a consent agreement in November 2023 to strike the language and end the lawsuit.
The deal largely went unnoticed statewide until Aug.1, when the omitted language became evident to Beaton and others.
Represented by the Ard Law Group, Beaton and Walsh filed to intervene Sept. 16.
“It’s purely a constitutional argument,” Beaton said Monday, Oct. 7. “Residency matters.”
Under the state constitution Article VI, Section 1, to be a resident and vote, you must be 18 years old and have lived within your voting precinct at least 30 days immediately prior to any election.
The motion to intervene in the unilateral lawmaking in violation of the constitution is set for 10 a.m. Friday in a Tacoma courtroom, Beaton said. The purpose of the attempted intervention is to make state and county election officials follow the constitution or change the language in the manner required by law.
Beaton said the effort to quietly remove the 30-day residency requirement is an end-run around the constitution smacking of politics, as everyone involved in the decision is a Democrat.
A constitutional change should not be made by just a handful of people all belonging to the same political party, Beaton said.
Even the Washington State Alliance for Retired Americans is a left-leaning organization, led by Chairwoman Jackie Boschok, who has a long list of donations to Democrats. She also donated to campaign funds for State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who represented Hobbs and the state in the deal.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, columnist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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