The Washington State Legislature recently passed legislation that conservatives warn will increase voting by non-citizens.
Senate Bill 5077 requires the governor designate state agencies to automatically register individuals to vote when they access government services. Anyone signing up for public benefits or using a state agency in Washington will have their information automatically transmitted to the Secretary of State’s office for voter registration.
The bill mirrors the federal “motor voter” law, which requires local Department of Motor Vehicle offices to automatically register people to vote in federal elections who apply for drivers licenses. It broadens that process to include state welfare agencies and offices performing naturalization ceremonies. Even individuals enrolling in health insurance through the state’s exchange will now have their information automatically transmitted to the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office to facilitate voter registration. Local residents and election integrity advocates are alarmed.
“In Washington, non-citizens can take advantage of, and have access to, all of these services,” Julie Barrett, founder of Conservative Ladies of Washington says in a video opposing the legislation.
Conservative think tanks like the America First Policy Institute warn that automatic voter registration “highly increases the likelihood that non-citizens will be registered to vote.”
In Washington, that concern is not merely hypothetical. A report from The Center Square revealed that numerous illegal aliens have been registered to vote in the state, often against their will.
An immigration attorney in 2018 wrote to the Department of Licensing (DOL) that “many of our clients are unwittingly getting registered to vote when they get their IDs, apply or receive any state benefits,” the report noted. The following year, an employee for the Kittitas County Auditor wrote to the Secretary of State’s office it was “very discouraging to know that DOL personnel are assisting in the process of registering NON-Citizens.”
In 2020, DOL and SOS were notified that a Chinese student was registered to vote and had received a ballot in the mail, despite his host family requesting that the state remove his name from the voter rolls, The Center Square reported.
While some left-wing groups claim non-citizen voting is rare, one vote has potential to sway a race’s outcome.
Multiple recent Washington elections were decided by a single vote including a city council race in Rainier and a local ballot initiative in Skagit County.
Even though the bill is written so that the governor is only required to decide which agencies will offer automatic voter registration, Barrett says that is a smokescreen.
“They’re all going to agree. It’s Washington.”
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