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
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
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)
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
- 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.
- 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
- 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.)
- 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 )
- 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).
- 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.