Hello Democrats! It was wonderful seeing so many of you (virtually) at our state committee meeting last weekend, and I’m so excited for our state convention coming up in June in Tacoma! In between now and then, we’ve got a ton of work to do, so let’s get to it!
HUGE Voter Protection News - Our Democratic Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy made major news this week with the release of an audit of our counties’ practices when it comes to rejecting ballots due to signature issues. These include instances when voters don’t sign their ballots at all and when voters are judged to have a signature on their ballot that don’t match their signature on file.
While fewer than 1% of ballots are rejected statewide, and there could be an incredibly rare handful of cases where someone is trying to sign someone else’s ballot, it turns out that there are some extremely important - and concerning - trends in the data.
It’s interesting to look at signature rejection rates across counties, but what’s far more concerning are the rejection rates across demographic groups:
Statistical modeling of the rejected ballots concluded that while voters younger than 26 account for only 10% of Washington’s voting population, they made up more than 30% of rejected ballots.
Meanwhile, modeling showed that white voters had the lowest rejection rate among ethnic and racial groups.
And “Even when controlling for other variables, we estimated Black voters were twice as likely to have ballots rejected than white voters,” according to the audit.
Non-English speakers were also more likely to have their ballots rejected. A separate analysis of King County estimated that voters casting ballots that were not in English had a nearly 50% percent greater likelihood of having their ballot rejected.
Read that again - Black voters were TWICE AS LIKELY to have their ballots rejected by their county elections office as white voters. This is voter disenfranchisement, right here in Washington state. And something we’ve tried to tell past GOP Secretaries of State!
Why is this happening? The audit talks about some explanations, like language barriers for voters who aren’t proficient in English or folks whose signatures had naturally changed over time. But the solution is leadership - for decades, we’ve had Republican Secretaries of State who haven’t taken this challenge seriously enough and haven’t been committed to ensuring all voters get their ballots counted - especially voters with limited English skills, and young voters, and Black voters. We need leadership that will make sure this gets fixed!
There are two main ways Washington State Democrats have been working to address this. First of all, there’s our state-of-the-art voter protection program, where we help voters with questions about the process for filling out and returning their ballots before the election, and we follow up with voters who had their ballots rejected post-election to make sure they have the information and help necessary to “cure” their ballots so they can be counted. Our voter protection and “ballot curing” program has been nationally recognized by the Analyst Institute as the best in the country, and you had better be sure we’ll be running it again this year!
Secondly, we’re making sure that we hold the Secretary of State’s office with a Democrat who can provide the statewide leadership we need to make changes at our county auditors’ offices, to end these unfair and racist disparities. I'm glad that we finally have a Democrat, Secretary Steve Hobbs, in that office, and we are committed to keeping it that way in this year’s midterm election!
Secretary Hobbs has talked a lot about what he plans to do to encourage voter registration, first-time voters, and inclusion and support of diverse voters. We’re planning on organizing some Zoom events for after the legislative session so you can hear directly from him. But in the meantime, ask YOUR county auditor or election official how they are going to respond to their disparate rejection rates in YOUR county. We’d like to hear what they say, and we must hold them accountable.
Announcing Upcoming Training Opportunities - The Washington State Democratic Party, in collaboration with the DNC’s Best Practices Institute, is excited to announce the launch of our 2022 State Party Campaign Bootcamp webinar training program!
The State Party Campaign Bootcamp Program is a free, two-day, virtual training program with supplemental, small-group coaching sessions to encourage community building and collaborative learning. This program seeks to support campaigns by ensuring that comprehensive training is free and accessible for Democrats working on campaigns across Washington.
Candidates will learn critical aspects of launching and running a successful campaign, hear from special guest speakers, and have the opportunity to hone in on subjects with individualized attention through additional coaching sessions with experts. This training is open to Democratic candidates, potential candidates, and campaign staff. Even if you haven’t decided whether you want to run for office this year, this training might provide you with helpful information for when you are making that decision, and to hit the ground running when you do. And if you are running, it’s a MUST for you and your team!
Click Here to Register!
The schedule will be -
Saturday, February 26: State Party Campaign Bootcamp–Crafting Your Campaign
Sunday, February 27: State Party Campaign Bootcamp–External Engagement
Tuesday, March 1: Media Coaching (pick one of these)
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Session 1: 4:00 pm
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Session 2: 5:00 pm
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Session 3: 6:00 pm
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Session 4: 7:00 pm
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Session 5: 8:00 pm
Thursday, March 3: Call Time Coaching (pick one of these)
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Session 1: 4:00 pm
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Session 2: 5:00 pm
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Session 3: 6:00 pm
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Session 4: 7:00 pm
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Session 5: 8:00 pm
CLICK HERE to submit your registration for the 2022 State Party Campaign Bootcamp Program! Registration will close on February 24th. We want a strong Washington turnout!
Key Tasks for Local Parties - Last week, I let you know about some of the key tasks that we NEED local parties working on as the Coordinated Campaign spools up for 2022, and I am really excited with the response we’ve received so far!. We’ve got doorbelling and phone banking events scheduled across Washington. Our new field organizer, Jesús Zamora, who just joined us from Houston, Texas, even has bilingual phone bankers recruited for some of his phone banking in Central Washington!
The four important projects that we want our local party organizations to get started on right away are:
Early Endorsements - Don’t wait to endorse our great Democratic incumbents, like Sen. Patty Murray. These early endorsements help build the groundwork for our organizing and voter contact around these candidates. It’s especially important for legislative candidates and folks in smaller districts, who don’t represent as many areas and who really want to be able to get their Democratic Party endorsements in their voter guide statements. The voter guide statements for both the primary and general elections are due in the middle of May and if your party waits until later than that to endorse, your LPO’s endorsements won’t be included in voter guide statements! That’s a big problem for our parties and for the candidates we support - make sure you have scheduled at least one early endorsement opportunity in April or sooner.
PCOs Can (and Should) Start Doorbelling - For PCOs, the time to walk or call the voters in your precincts is NOW so that we can get that data back into Votebuilder ASAP. The data PCOs collect in the first quarter of this year is essential to the voter targeting every Democratic candidate will be able to do in the primary election and for the rest of the year. If needed, our Coordinated Campaign staff can help set PCOs up with a phone or canvass list, an appropriate script for their precinct, and either a listening or ID canvass - just ask us at organizing@wa-democrats.org.
Local Volunteer Teams - Join a local volunteer team! Our state party field organizers are already working to set up local volunteer teams and scheduling voter contact events with those teams. Search for events near you and sign up for your first shift of the year athttps://www.wa-democrats.org/organizingevents/.
If you don't see an event near you to sign up for, invite three friends to join you in starting a new volunteer group, and let us know at organizing@wa-democrats.org. We'll work with you to set up a schedule and provide a script, lists, and training!
Black History Month and Lunar New Year - This Tuesday, February 1st, was a really fun day - it was both the start of Black History Month and the Lunar New Year, kicking off the Year of the Tiger!
Black History Month is a time to celebrate and remember the heritage of all African Americans and their contributions to the world! Black history is American history, and we honor Washington State's progressive African American leaders who have paved the way and inspired future generations.
From Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland - the first Black person (and Korean American) to represent Washington in federal office - to our Black legislators and local elected officials, we’re proud that Black leaders are ascending in the Washington State Democratic Party. This must continue! These last few months have seen the passing of Black leaders like Sen. George Fleming and Rep. Bill Smitherman, and we need to make sure that a new generation is elected and re-elected to office to carry on their legacy and their work (and create a new legacy!). I’m incredibly proud of the Black Democrats that we’ve elected in districts across the state, and I’m excited to support so many of them again for re-election in 2022!
For example, let’s hear it for our Legislative Black Caucus, led by Representative Jamila Taylor in the 30th LD. The all-Democratic caucus is up to a record nine members and is bicameral, with seven members in the House and two in the Senate. The group represents nine of the 25 Black lawmakers in Washington’s legislative history—the first member dating to Washington’s inaugural legislature in 1889.
Tuesday was also the start of a new Lunar Year! I hope that the Year of the Tiger brings you and your loved ones prosperity and good health! I loved this short video that Sen. Joe Nguyen posted on Twitter from the legislature’s recognition of the Lunar New Year - check it out!
Legislative Retirements Update - This week, Rep. Mike Sells of the 38th LD announced that he wouldn’t be running for re-election this year. We congratulate Rep. Sells on a tremendous record of service in the legislature as a champion for working people and higher education. Rep. Sells is a huge labor supporter (like our party!) and one of the leaders who helped bring a WSU branch campus to Everett, so all the Cougs out there should be sure to thank Rep. Sells for his leadership.
Other Democratic legislators not running for re-election include Sen. Reuven Carlyle of the 36th LD, Sen. David Frockt of the 46th LD, and Rep. Steve Kirby of the 29th LD, with more retirements possibly to come. I’m so appreciative of their service, and I’m looking forward to seeing the exciting Democrats we have running for office rising in the ranks to join us in the legislature next year!
As always, thank you all for reading and for your support!
With gratitude,
Tina Podlodowski
