WA State GOP Files Lawsuit to Dispute State Primary Election Ballots

This post first appeared at All Things Politics and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Bill Bruch

Sept 5, 2024, the Washington State Republican Party (WAGOP) and their attorney Joel Ard filed a lawsuit claiming ballots “cured” by King County appear to be invalid, after they used the OmniBallot system in the hand recount for second place in the August 6, 2024, WA State Primary Election Commissioner of Public Lands Race.

Thank you to the WAGOP and Mr. Ard for doing this. Voters should be thankful and encouraged that the WAGOP is making efforts to strengthen and improve our elections.

WA is an all mail-in state and when a voter forgets to sign the envelope containing their ballot or when the signature on the envelope does not match what is on record, “ballot curing” is necessary. This is the process of informing a voter to fix/cure their signature, so their vote is counted, per WAC 434-261-053.

In the lawsuit, the WAGOP says King County illegally used an online tool that helped voters fix problems with their ballot, and that it affected the outcome in the statewide primary race for Public Lands Commissioner. The lawsuit also alleges that King County Elections Director Julie Wise did not ensure that voter information transmitted over the app had adequate privacy and security protections because the tool is operated by a private company.

The WAGOP claims Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson would have defeated Democrat Dave Upthegrove in the primary race if the app hadn’t been used. The party wants the votes that were “cured” through the app to be invalidated.

King County Elections, which controls 17 of the State’s 49 Legislative Districts, contracted with the leftist third party corporation, ”Democracy Live.” Democracy Live operates the OmniBallot voting system, which used the online/mobile phone web app ballot curing program for the Primary Election.

According to the complaint, King County counted 2,092 ballot signature affidavits that were illegally “cured” violating RCW 29A.60.164(4) via Democracy Live’s OmniBallot voting system in the election. If these 2,092 votes were not counted, then Upthhegrove would have had a less than one in a billion chance to have finished ahead of Pederson for second position in the race.

After the statewide recount was officially certified Sept 4, 2024, vote results changed slightly but still had Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler and Democrat Dave Upthegrove making the top two general election in November.

The recount indicated a 49-vote margin separating second-place finisher Upthegrove from Pederson, who finished third in the contest. Before the recount, the margin originally stood at 51 votes with over 1.9 million votes counted. After consolidating the amended results certified by each of the 39 individual county canvassing boards, Upthegrove gained four votes and Pederson gained six votes.

“Overvotes” – “undervotes” and “write-in” votes were also identified during the manual recount, which helped lead to many minor changes in the overall vote total changes for the seven candidates in most all WA State 39 counties.

Democracy Live’s OmniBallot platform is a web-based system for blank ballot delivery, ballot marking, and online voting.

Democracy Live is a Seattle-based company that sells systems that provide electronic blank ballot delivery systems, remote accessible ballot marking systems, and full internet voting systems.

FALSE CLAIM REGARDING FEDERAL CERTIFICATION: A June 2021 report states, Democracy Live’s misleading and untrue statements are not limited to claims regarding the security of its systems. In a press release issued Nov 2019, Democracy Live wrote: “Seattle-based Democracy Live has been awarded full certification of the first stand-alone accessible balloting device in the elections industry… The OmniBallot Tablet is the first vendor-neutral, off-the-shelf ballot marking device that has been reviewed and approved by an EAC-approved independent test lab.”

The press release appears to boast that the OmniBallot tablet was awarded federal certification by the EAC. However, OmniBallot has never been granted EAC certification. Democracy Live is not even a registered manufacturer of the EAC’s testing and certification program, a pre-requisite for any voting system vendor that wishes to pursue EAC certification. These false marketing claims were so egregious that the EAC took the unprecedented step to issue a press release stating directly that the EAC has not certified any online voting system.

FALSE CLAIMS OF SECURITY: There is widespread consensus from computer scientists and national security experts that any online transmission of voted ballots cannot be secured.

Other reports say OmniBallot can be used to mark ballots that will be printed and returned in the mail, the software sends the voter’s identity and ballot choices to Democracy Live, an unnecessary risk that jeopardizes a voter and the secret ballot.

The Web App relies on a number of third parties to perform its services. The app runs JavaScript loaded from Amazon, Google and Cloudflare, making all three companies, as well as Democracy Live itself, potential points of compromise for the elections system.

Also, Democracy Live can receive sensitive personal information, including voter ID, ballot selections, signature selections and in some cases, even a browser fingerprint, all which could be used for nefarious purposes.

Of Note: On April 9, 2020, more than 60 scientists and election experts signed a letter to governors, secretaries of state and state election directors urging them to refrain from allowing the use of any internet voting system.

Given the well-established risks of internet voting, it is hard to believe that anyone would use such an insecure web app susceptible to manipulation and hacking for ANY type of voting.

Bill Bruch is the WA State GOP Election Integrity Chairman, WSRP Executive Board Member, 4-Term Skagit County GOP Chairman, Citizen Journalist, Blogger, Business Owner, “2021 Citizen Activist of the Year” award by the Olympic Conference, 2020 WA State House Representative Candidate, Former Council Member, and WA State 2016 and 2024 RNC National Convention Delegate.

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