By Jake Goldstein-Street and Jerry Cornfield | Reporters
Welcome back to the Daily Standard's weekend edition, where we recap some of the week's top stories.
Quote of the week: "A rainy day is a perfect day to vote in Washington state.”
That’s Bob Ferguson of King County on Friday moments before putting his ballot into a drop box on the campus of South Puget Sound Community College. With that, Ferguson, the governor of Washington, joined 1,535,881 others who had returned their ballots by midday, a tick under 30% of the state’s registered voters.
Nearly 70% of ballots have been returned via drop boxes, a sign that voters are heeding warnings to steer clear of the U.S Postal Service to ensure their ballot is counted. Operational changes they’ve made means there’s no guarantee a ballot will get postmarked on the same day it’s put in a mailbox.
Turnout prognosticators think participation in Tuesday’s election will wind up just north of 60%. To get there another 1.5 million people are going to have to vote in the next four days.
If you’re one, what’s the hold-up? Looking for more information? Check out the Standard’s voter guide. There are explainers on the three statewide initiatives and responses to our surveys from the candidates vying for five seats on the state Supreme Court. There’s also responses from those competing in 34 legislative contests and in the heated race for the 3rd Congressional District seat.
Ferguson, on Friday, beat the drum for ballot drop boxes. He also discussed his activation of the National Guard to help protect drop boxes. An unknown number of guard members will be assisting election operations in seven counties, mostly by roaming around and keeping an eye out for a would-be drop box vandal, as seen in Clark County in 2024.
King County election workers dump out a bin full of ballots from a local drop box to sort ahead of the midterm election on Thursday in Renton. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
Not all the noise this election is from competing candidates and dueling forces on the initiatives. Quite a bit has been generated from the other Washington.
For one, federal prosecutors appointed by President Donald Trump accused the state of allowing more than 400 noncitizens to vote in numerous elections over the years, and pushed the state to set aside their ballots while their statuses are confirmed. Secretary of State Steve Hobbs unsurprisingly refused, saying the federal list was deeply flawed and upping the ante as the federal government has sued California over a similar claim.
Hobbs and Seattle’s top federal prosecutor, Charles Neil Floyd, continued their battle in the media on Thursday. Hobbs called the federal list a “dumpster fire disguised as a legal document.”
He also drew fire from Floyd for saying Washington had “no way” to confirm if immigrant noncitizens are on the state’s rolls and it’s not unusual for them to be mistakenly registered. He says, though, that those people would be caught if they voted.
“The only questions are how many illegal votes are being counted in Washington and what will the state do about it,” Floyd said in a statement late Thursday. “Washington clearly has no intention or ability to identify non-citizens and remove them from the voter rolls.”
The Justice Department doesn’t appear to have sued Washington yet.
READ MORE: WA mobilizes National Guard for added security for ballot drop boxes | by Jerry Cornfield
News tips, feedback, questions? Email us: [email protected]
By Jerry Cornfield
Two content creators recently posted Instagram videos urging their followers to back the reelection of Democratic state Rep. Amy Walen of Kirkland over Jessica Forsythe, a Democratic challenger. They got paid with resources of Washington Needs to Compete, a political committee with a huge treasury and savvy leaders betting that influencers, used increasingly in campaigns across the country, will pay dividends in this legislative duel. The tactic drew fire from the leader of a political committee funded by statewide unions and Democratic legislative caucuses that is spending a small warchest to unseat Walen, who lost the primary to Forsythe by 17 votes.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray hosts a roundtable on rising health insurance costs alongside Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer, center-right, small business owners and a local physician on Thursday, in Seattle. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)
By Jake Goldstein-Street
The 260,000 or so Washingtonians who get their health insurance on the state’s exchange under the Affordable Care act are in for some sticker shock. Starting Jan. 1, rates are going up an average of 22.2%. This year, premiums increased 21%. Still, only about 15,000 more residents were enrolled on the exchange’s individual market at this time last year, far from the 80,000 fewer enrollees that state officials had anticipated.
Open enrollment opens Sunday. For coverage to start Jan. 1, enroll by Dec. 31. Applying by Jan. 15 means a plan would start Feb. 1.
Where’s the governor?
Soon he’ll be donning a Halloween costume and greeting trick-or-treaters at the executive mansion. As for his costume? It is a state secret. We asked and were only told the theme is “fall.” Last year, when the theme was Star Wars, Gov. Bob Ferguson dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi with a lightsaber and First Lady Colleen Ferguson dressed in a white robe as Princess Leia. For this year, we’ll all learn at 4:30 p.m. when the governor starts handing out candy.
We received a public calendar for this week. It was chock full of activities though not the one that merited a news release from his office.
It was the signing of an executive order in his office Tuesday. This one, his 17th since taking office, creates a new government job, Chief Fraud Protection Officer, whose primary chore will be to increase the wattage of existing fraud-fighting efforts in the state’s largest agencies. Per the executive order, the position “shall be implemented using existing resources to the extent practicable.”
Ferguson inserts his ballot into a drop box on the campus of South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia on Friday. Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall is walking away after depositing her ballot. (Photo by Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard)
In the news release informing us of what he signed, we learned he will request legislation in the 2027 session to expand the Medicaid False Claims Act to cover all false claims against the state. Washington is one of only five states without a so-called False Claims Act covering such things as overcharging the government for goods or services or submitting a false application for a government loan or grant.
Ferguson, as is his custom, squeezed a little electioneering in between meetings. On Thursday, he popped into Yakima for a rally against Initiative 645, the ballot measure to repeal the tax on high earners that Ferguson signed into law seven months ago.
IN OTHER NEWS THIS WEEK…
The pivotal U.S. Senate race in Alaska is now embroiled in threats from the president and probes from the state’s governor over a candidate appearing on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent. Washington state has been there before.
The owner of the only remaining coal power plant in the Pacific Northwest is doggedly proceeding with a plan to extend its life by converting to natural gas fuel over the next two years.
Bird flu is hitting Washington dairy farms and it’s spreading fast.
Washington’s top election official is calling on federal authorities to provide more evidence that the state’s voter rolls include hundreds of noncitizens, as a preliminary investigation reveals U.S. citizens are listed.
Washington state’s campaign finance enforcers are allowing candidates for legislative and Supreme Court seats to spend as much of their own money on their campaigns in the final days of this election.
A slew of significant and controversial changes for local governments to be decided Nov. 3 are receiving far less attention than contests for state Supreme Court seats and statewide initiatives.
Immigration advocates gathered in Seattle to continue their push for Washington state officials to do more to restrict the ability of the feds to get information from a license plate database.
A recent state evaluation shows the Ninth Grade Success initiative is working: More students pass their classes and stay on track to graduate.
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