Ballots for the Aug. 4 primary have been mailed to registered voters in King County and should appear in mailboxes this week if they have not already.
For this year’s midterm, the stakes are extremely high. State attorneys general and county election workers across the country have successfully battled President Donald Trump in his attempts to disrupt the voting process.
On Thursday, Trump tried to make a case for what many fear could be a last-ditch effort to steal the election this fall. Using the same tired and debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him, he blamed China and Russia (though he apparently didn’t confront their leaders when he met with them this term). He also blamed Venezuela, election poll workers, voting machines, the news media and even undocumented people who didn’t and couldn’t vote. Basically, he blamed everyone but himself. Now Trump plans to use the investigative powers at his disposal to intimidate voters in certain blue states.
“This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to insure that our own system can never ever be hacked or compromised like it was in the past,” he said, as he again called for Congress to pass the SAVE Act, which unfairly restricts voter registration.
Based on Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, voters and election workers should expect the unexpected. For states such as Washington that vote by mail — a system Trump called “inherently corrupt” — it could mean an executive order that could slow the delivery of ballots by the U.S. Postal Service. For other states, it could mean ordering federal agents at polling places or poll watchers to intimidate voters.
“The biggest threat to the elections in our country is the president carrying out a strategic attempt to undermine our election weeks before the election,” said Julie Wise, King County’s elections director, who watched Trump’s speech. She, too, encouraged voters to vote early. Currently 50% of voters wait until the last two days to vote.
“If you are going you use the mail, USPS is saying to have it in one week prior to Election Day.” She said early voting gives election workers time to adjudicate any discrepancies and allow for more meaningful results the first night.
State and county election officials and members of the state’s congressional delegation have been working to prepare for the worst. Attorneys have been contacted to be on standby. Meanwhile, it’s up to voters to make sure their ballots are marked correctly and to send them in before Aug. 4, or use a secure county elections dropbox to turn in ballots by 8 p.m. on that day. (See locations at st.news/drop) There’s a part for all of us to play to protect our right to vote.
