Sue Forde

2nd Bill Cutoff has passed – time to weigh in

A Message from WA State Representative J. T. Wilcox, House Republican Leader:

February 24th was the fiscal committee cutoff, our second deadline of the legislative session. Our next deadline is house of origin cutoff on March 8, which means a lot of time voting on bills from now until then. I discuss both of these cutoffs in my video update. 

In the middle of next week, we will hit the midway point of the 105-day legislative session. Below, I share my thoughts on some of the storylines, to date, and what to expect moving forward.  

No meaningful tax relief

One legislative priority for House Republicans is making life more affordable for Washingtonians. We have introduced bills to provide sales tax (House Bill 1704) and property tax (House Bill 1483) relief and to expand the Working Families Tax Credit (House Bill 1000).

Like last year, Democrats are not open to providing meaningful tax relief — despite another budget surplus. Instead, they are considering legislation that would increase property taxes and create a new per-mile charge on vehicle usage. House Republicans oppose these measures and others that would make life more expensive. 

No emergency powers reform 

Despite bipartisan support in the past, the majority party has no interest in common-sense, balanced emergency powers reform. House Bill 1535, sponsored by Rep. Chris Corry, could not even get a public hearing.

The Legislature is attempting to address some of the consequences of the governor’s decisions, including student learning loss. I highlighted K-12 education back on February 10, including House Republican proposals for special education funding, dual credit programs, school safety and school choice. 

It’s also time to end the vaccine mandate for state employees, something King County and Seattle announced earlier this month. This mandate should have never been imposed in the first place and has negatively impacted some state services.  

Emergency powers reform is an issue House Republicans have been talking about since the summer of 2020. And we will continue to. You can learn more here. 

Democrats are divided on public safety 

The majority party passed disastrous policing policies in 2021 that made our communities less safe. Through bipartisan efforts, we were able to fix some of those mistakes last year. However, one big problem remains: law enforcement limits on vehicular pursuits.

Anyone looking at this objectively understands that limiting vehicular pursuits empowers criminals and endangers communities. It was nice to see editorial boards weigh in this week, including The Columbian and Tri-City Herald.

This experiment has clearly failed. At least 20 House Democrats understand this fact. That’s the number of co-sponsors for bipartisan legislation that would fix the problem: House Bill 1363. In its original form, this measure would have restored the initial threshold to begin a vehicle pursuit to reasonable suspicion.

Unfortunately, House Bill 1363 was amended and watered down before it passed out of the House Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee last week. From there, it was referred to the House Transportation Committee, where it received a public hearing on Monday. The measure passed out of that committee yesterday in its amended form. 

The legislation is still alive and the debate continues. We need to convince more Democrats to support the original version. It’s not just Republicans who are pushing for this outcome. Concerned citizens, law enforcement, local elected officials and business groups know how important this is for public safety. 

House Republican priorities

In addition to making life more affordable, House Republicans are focused on public safety, housing and empowering families. While some of our agenda bills have advanced this legislative session, many did not. Please visit this webpage to see a list of our priority bills and where they stand in the legislative process.  

We recently updated our list of good and bad bills based on what happened in fiscal committees this week. You can find that list here. 

Bipartisan opportunities   

Despite some disappointments and uncertainty, I also see bipartisan opportunities — especially in the areas of housing, mental health, workforce issues, salmon recovery and budget development. The next few weeks will reveal just how much we can accomplish. 

On housing, House Republican bills to expedite housing permits (House Bill 1401) and split lots (House Bill 1245) are alive — as are other bipartisan measures. Unfortunately, our Homes for Heroes (House Bill 1633) legislation died in a fiscal committee.  

As in years past, our ranking members on the House Transportation and Capital Budget committees — Reps. Andrew Barkis and Mike Steele — are involved with the development of their respective budgets. They will again influence these state spending plans. While the operating budget isn’t developed in the same bipartisan process, House Republicans will again offer real solutions and contrast in the upcoming weeks.

In closing, to sign up for The Week Ahead calendar we send out, please visit this link. 

Sincerely,

Rep. J.T. Wilcox
House Republican Leader
(360) 786-7912
JT.Wilcox@leg.wa.gov

Sue Forde

Weekly Report for Feb. 26, 2023 from CAPR

There are still many bills heading through the committees toward a debate and vote on the floors of the House and Senate – and time to let your voice be heard as the highest authority – the voting citizen.

Following are the bills affecting us all – both bad and good – from the Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR). You can click on the links as indicated to make your comments heard. Please do your part in letting our elected representatives (who represent YOU), what your thoughts are and urge them to vote wisely.

If you’d like to receive daily reports from CAPR to your email box directly, you can get CAPR Legislative alerts by going to CAPR.us/LEG

CAPR-bills-for-week-of-feb.-26-2023Download

Sue Forde

End of first legislative deadline cutoff

This in from State Representative and House GOP Leader J.T. Wilcox:

State lawmakers reached their first deadline of the legislative session today: policy committee cutoff. This means all bills needed to pass out of their respective policy committees in their house of origin by today, or they are considered “dead.” Although, no bill is ever officially “dead” until the gavel drops on the last day. 

These deadlines are helpful to state lawmakers, constituents and stakeholders engaged in the legislative process. Each one helps narrow down the universe of legislation being considered. You can find the 2023 Session Cutoff Calendar here. 

Next Friday is fiscal committee cutoff. The Week Ahead calendar can be found on this webpage. 

A list of good and bad bills 

I am often asked to share a list of good and bad bills. This seems like a simple request, but it can be complicated because people have different views on what’s good and bad. With that caveat, you can find a recently updated list here.

I discuss some of these bills — including updates on vehicular pursuit, salmon recovery and House Republican housing solutions — in my weekly video update. You can find House Republican priorities, including bill numbers and descriptions, on this webpage. The Ledger

Another question I get is: “Where can I find more information?” My answer is: The Ledger. 

The Ledger is a legislative news aggregator that is updated daily. This platform was created for anyone who wants to stay apprised of what’s happening in the Legislature and state government. I again encourage you to bookmark and share the link. 

Participating in the legislative process | new video and webpage

Rep. Peter Abbarno recently created this video which explains how to communicate with state lawmakers and participate in the legislative process. This new webpage has both Peter’s video and simple, step-by-step instructions. Both are great resources.    

Some people like to come to Olympia, meet with state lawmakers and testify in person. Others don’t have the time or perhaps don’t want to navigate the Capitol. Either way, you can make a difference in the Legislature. 

Day of Remembrance 

In closing, the House paused to observe Day of Remembrance on Thursday. Republicans and Democrats provided floor speeches in support of House Resolution 4615, including Reps. Drew Stokesbary and Stephanie McClintock. The resolution honors Japanese Americans who suffered relocation and internment during World War II. I take this day very seriously. No one should think that this injustice could never happen again or that it couldn’t happen to them. You can watch the day’s ceremonies here. 

Sincerely,

Rep. J.T. Wilcox
House Republican Leader
(360) 786-7912
JT.Wilcox@leg.wa.gov

Sue Forde

Upcoming Bills for Feb. 8, 2023

Public hearings in the State Legislature for February 8, 2023 include the following, with recommended “pros” or “cons” and reasoning from Influencing Olympia, a grassroots citizen organization tracking a number of bills that will affect our lives.

Please take the time to click on the “One Click” button at minimum to get your voice heard for a “pro” or a “con”. If you have time and inclination, you could take it a step further in giving written testimony and/or in-person testimony. If our legislators don’t hear from us, they majority Democrats believe they are on the right track, and will pass some of these bad bills, or kill some of the good ones.

Click on the link below to access a pdf listing of the bills for tomorrow. You can increase the size to more easily read each one by clicking on the + at the top of the page. You can also click on the “One Click” link, which will take you directly to the bill’s page, where you can click on “pro” or “con”, and submit it quickly.

Bills for Wed 2.8.2023Download
Sue Forde

Bills needing your attention at the State Legislature

So far since the Legislature began on January 9th, there have been over 1,475 bills submitted to various committees.  We’ll be continuing to cover the ones that are the best and the worst, for your input.  It is very important to try and stop bad bills from getting out of committee, so time is of the essence in commenting or just giving a “pro” or “con” message on each of them.  Sending a message to our legislators DOES make a difference; when they hear from a lot of us, they tend to listen, realizing the bills won’t fly under the radar.  Here are several bills that need our attention from the WA State Republican Party.  (You can follow more bills from this source here: Olympia Watch)

From Olympia Watch:

This week in Olympia, Democrats continue to push terrible bills that will increase taxes even further, further harm ‘affordable housing’ goals, and cement election fraud into Washington’s elections.

Along with their terrible bills, Democrats are ignoring bipartisan common-sense bills, along with Republican sponsored bills, that would help get our state moving in the right direction.

Republicans and Democrats have been able to come together to support bipartisan police pursuit reforms along with Emergency Powers reforms to bring back legislative oversight on the Emergency process. These bills are being blocked by Democrat leadership – further proof that if our state is to champion bipartisanship, we need a Republican majority. 

Instead, Democrats are fighting to implement bills like:

It is imperative that you TAKE ACTION and register a CON position to stop radical Democrats in Olympia from making these bad bills LAW. You can view a full and updating list of bad bills on our Olympia Watch page.  Scroll down the page and click on “bad bills” and “good bills” with easy access to weigh in with our legislators.

Democrat Senator Manka Dhingra was appointed as Chair of the Law and Justice Committee, and is single handedly STOPPING police pursuit reform from being heard. Reach out to Senator Dhingra here and ask her to move on this important and bipartisan bill!  We’d also ask that you register your PRO position here on this good piece of legislation coming out of Olympia.

From Influencing Olympia:

A Great Article on HB 1333: Domestic Terrorism Bill in WA State by Wes Cormier in the GHWeekly.

Especially bad bills are SB 5489 and SB 5599 – allowing children to come to Washington State for “gender-affirming” surgery without permission or knowledge of their parents. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE and other bills, and an easy way to comment on them.

Sue Forde

Weigh in on upcoming bills this week that affect you this week (Jan. 30th, 2023)!!

There are a myriad of bills coming through the State Legislature, and many of them will affect your lives.  Please be sure to read through, and comment on those that will make your life better or worse.  These are “your” (“our”) “representatives, so they need to hear from us about what the actions they are taking.

Citizens Alliance for Property Rights (CAPR) is a great organization looking out for private property and Constitutional citizens’ rights. Here is their list of recommendations on upcoming and current bills in the WA State Legislature for this week:

Click on the link below for a downloadable PDF version that will allow you to review bills and comment.

Bills before the Washington State Legislature – Week of Jan. 29, 2023.

Of special note, please comment on these bills scheduled for Monday and Tuesday (Jan 30-31):

Monday 1/30/2023 at 1:30p

State Gov’t & Elections Committee

Location
Senate Hearing Rm 2 and Virtual
J.A. Cherberg
Olympia, WA

Public Hearing
  1. CON SB 5209 – Establishing universal civic duty voting. (Remote Testimony Available). – Testify (this forces all legal voters in the state of WA to have to have to be registered vote whether they want to or not. It forces the auditor to contact the voter to see if the voter wants to remain on the voter rolls or submit a waiver to be removed from the voter rolls. It should always be the will of a sovereign citizen to decide whether or not they want to register to vote. This also puts more burden on the auditor’s office to follow through on waivers. 
  2. CON SB 5378 – Concerning voter education. (Remote Testimony Available). – Testify (you already have this information in a former email from last week. It is an attempt that the creation of this Bill by the OSOS and cosponsored by others will keep RCV from being able to happen in WA state by making it too complex and too expensive to educate the people on alternate voting systems. However, this has never stopped NGOs, non profits or oligarch/businesses from interfering with our election process and providing the tools necessary no matter what the cost. If this bill succeeds and somehow education and resources are funded for jurisdictions to do alternate voting systems, this bill will end up being a precursor to Ranked Choice Voting. It could also be a hindrance to moving away from top-two/open primary going back to original model where each party puts forward one candidate chosen by their own party members. Discern and Vote your conscience). 
  3. CON SB 5459 – Concerning requests for records containing election information. (Remote Testimony Available). – Testify (the govt needs to remain transparent to the people with public records request and keeping gov’t responses at the lowest level possible closest to “We the People”. For example,  keeping more accountability at the Auditor’s office as it is easier for the people to hold an Auditor accountable to the people at the lower local county level than a SOS at the higher state  level. 

https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules/Home/Documents/30618?/Senate/28245/01-01-2023/12-31-2023/Schedule/5378//Bill/

Transportation Committee at 4p:

CON SSB 5112 – Updating processes related to voter registration. (Remote Testimony Available). – Testify 

Comp Bill HB 1229 (you will be voting on the Substitute SB 5112)

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5112&Year=2023&Initiative=false

This bill adds more complexity to an already complex and convoluted system which just increases voters’ mistrust in the system. See more detail here for CON:  https://whocountsthevotes.com/sb-5112-election-related-bills-2023-legislative-session/)

https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules/Home/Documents/30596

Tuesday 1/31/2023 at 1:30p 

Location

House Hearing Rm E and Virtual
John L. O’Brien Building
Olympia, WA

Possible Executive Session
  1. CON HB 1333 – Establishing the domestic violent extremism commission.(This committee excludes looking at domestic violent extremism against whites or Christians who were excluded in the research. This committee will also establish a reeducation program to those committing crimes of DVE and gives an additional $50K stipend to rural newspaper publishers, increasing their pay so they can be compensated for helping educate the people in those rural communities via the newspaper. 
  2. CON HB 1330 – Adjusting the threshold for requiring candidate contribution certifications relating to foreign nationals. (Establishes criteria to make sure donations are not from foreign nationals above $2500. But the requirement should be noninterference in U.S. Elections by foreign nationals. Period.)

https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules/#/House/31650/02-03-2023/01-27-2023/Schedule///Bill/

Wednesday 2/1/2023 at 1:30p 

Location

House Hearing Rm E and Virtual
John L. O’Brien Building
Olympia, WA

Possible Executive Session
  1. CON HB 1475 – Increasing access to elections by allowing certain populations to return ballots using an online ballot portal. (Returning ballots via an internet portal puts your vote at risk and vulnerable to be hacked. It also gives others access to tour confidential vote. Someone had to have a key to unencrypted it and it will be attached to your PII.)
  2. PRO HB 1426 – Concerning campaign contributions by controlled entities. (I watched testimony on some of this last week. Many were PRO because regulates multiple LLCs controlled by one owner to aggregate their contributions from the multiple LLC’s when making contributions to a candidate. This has gotten out of control with people creating LLCs just to find creative ways to funnel additional campaign contributions. This restricts abuse of campaign contributions through multiple LLC’s which aren’t legitimate businesses. They also have to be in operation for a year before they can make a contribution )
  3. CON HB 1442 – Defining synthetic media in campaigns for elective office, and providing relief for candidates and campaigns. (this keeps candidates from being able to use media from an opponent to create memes, mis or disinfo in advertising against the opponent in a campaign,  creating additional regulations. Who determines what it true or not? This will violate 1A rights. The candidate who believes s/he has been wronged will be able to have recourse and request remedy as a result). 
  4. CON HB 1443 – Updating the process for online voter registration by allowing voter applicants to provide the last four digits of social security number for authentication. (This bill allows for online registration and submitting documentation online to register to vote. Instead a voter should be required to come in person to register to vote and submit the required documentation proving they are a legal citizen and eligible. 

https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules/Home/Documents/30591?/House/31650/01-31-2023/12-31-2023/Schedule///Bill/

_________________________________________________________________________

RANKED CHOICE VOTING

from Jen Haugland (Duenkel)


House Bill 1592 Relating to using ranked choice voting in the presidential primary
Sponsored by Representatives Mena, Gregerson, Ramel, and Fitzgibbon
https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2023-24/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1592.pdf?q=20230125103349

This is what is new (its a short bill, easy reading material, but note the new sections and underlined). Here is my summary from my understanding:

  • If there are more than two candidates in a presidential primary election your county will use RCV. Otherwise it goes back to your top-two method.
  • Your county auditor will not be allowed to tabulate the results of the presidential primary that is completed with RCV. Instead under new section 1 c & d the auditor will have to send the date the Cast Vote Records to the OSOS for tabulation and it will be the authority of the SOS to tabulate the results using the instant run-off voting method and then the state shall make available to the voters in our county the preliminary and final results including each round of counting ballots. The SOS shall also make available cast vote record data in a publicly accessible electronic format in a manner based on precincts except when precinct results violates a voters right to a secret ballot. The SOS will determine the number of ranks a voter will have for the primary election (I’m assuming this is based on the number of presidential candidates in the primary. The SOS will determine the ballot. If a voter has 5 candidates to rank then you will be allowed to rank the 5 choices. I believe this eliminates Mickey Mouse as a write-in option from here on out.)
  • This bill also gives specific rules for auditors on how ballots will be counted in RCV: Voters must rank their 1,2,3,4,5 choices. (basically, when a voter is confused or misses ranking votes by all the choices. FYI this has been defined by researchers as “voter fatigue” and a method of disenfranchising the voter). If you voted for 1 and 1 gets eliminated after the RCV method has been calculated in the race, then your number 1 vote no longer counts and it drops down to what your number 2 choice was, and so on, etc. Also, if a voter picks 1 and 1, then both of those votes will be thrown out and your votes do not count, but your 3,4,5 have potential to be considered. If a voter picks 1, omitting choice 2,3), none of his or her remaining choices will be counted. No skipping allowed of two or more consecutive.
  • if a local party chooses to allow voters to select delegates who can be uncommitted to go to their National Convention just like the delegates who would be committed, the party will have to identify a threshold by % of votes that candidate must receive in order to win that delegation slot, otherwise they will not be a delegate to the convention. RCV screws with the vote % so much so, that you could have less than 50% and it will eliminate you and give it it delegate choice number 2.
  • Finally, the Voting System Machines will now have a loophole that allows for certification of just equipment to be certified within systems, since the EAC has only allowed the VSTL’s to certify completed Voting Systems. For example, Mason County has the Clear Ballot Voting System which includes a scanner, tabulator, etc. If one of those items in the system gets upgraded or changed out the VSM is no longer officially certified unless the whole system is resubmitted to the EAC testing company (we have ProV&V) in order to be tested and certified again according to the EAC. This is based on the HAVA Act of 2002. The Legislature is going to make it legal for allowing for changes to be made within the VSM so that just that one changed machine has to be certified… not he whole system. This violates the federal mandates that were created when Congress created the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to oversee and to protect our constitutional rights of voters with the machine vote systems.

WE are in SERIOUS trouble with this HB. Contact both Representatives Dan Griffey and Travis Couture to vote NO against this bill. It must not get out of committee.

In case you didn’t see the video example of how RCV works here it is again:

One Person, One Vote. No Compromise. Hold the Line.

______________________________________________

Note from Editor: A number of years ago, Ranked Choice Voting (also known as Instant Runoff Voting) was brought to Clallam County through the Home Rule Charter Commission. The people of the county voted it down, and with good reason.

Here is a link to the article we ran at that time:

https://clallamrepublicans.org/?s=ranked+choice+voting

Rep. Mike Chapman has signed on to the Ranked Choice Voting bill. Be sure to let your voice be heard…