Photo courtesy: Washington Attorney General's Office
OLYMPIA – Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and Attorney General Nick Brown announced a joint lawsuit with the state of Oregon against the Trump administration for their Executive Order regarding elections and voting rights.
At a press conference in Seattle on April 4, Hobbs and Brown outlined the ways the executive order attempts to control Washington’s election processes. The state’s lawsuit says, this executive order “harms States by purporting to override our sovereign laws governing the counting of votes and voter registration, imposing substantial costs on States to change state voting system and laws, and disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of State residents.”
After the press conference, Hobbs issued the following statement:
“As our state’s chief elections officer, I will not support measures that suppress Washington's voters under the guise of security, especially when other measures being taken by this administration leave our systems more vulnerable to real threats from foreign adversaries. This executive order is the latest in a troubling pattern of federal actions that conflict with state authority, create confusion around how elections are run, and make it harder for eligible Americans to vote — all while doing nothing meaningful to strengthen the security of our elections.
“In Washington, we know what works. Requiring all ballots to be received by Election Day for federal races would have rejected more than 300,000 ballots in 2024 alone, disproportionately impacting rural and underserved communities. Similarly, mandating documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote would disenfranchise eligible voters – especially seniors, low-income individuals, and naturalized citizens – who may not have easy access to passports or other acceptable, but potentially costly, documents.
“We will continue working with the Washington Attorney General’s Office to defend our constitutional authority and ensure elections remain secure, fair, and accessible. While this administration undermines our defenses and hands critical election responsibilities to agencies with no relevant experience, we will uphold the integrity of our process.”
Watch the press conference here.
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Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees areas within state government including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office operates the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, and administers the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees and the Productivity Board state employee suggestion program. The Secretary of State also oversees the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime.