Washington candidates for Secretary of State clash over disinformation, residency

It’s unclear how many people watched, but there was another contentious election debate Tuesday night in addition to the one between the U.S. vice presidential candidates.

The candidates for Washington Secretary of State took part in a debate hosted by the League of Women Voters.

Duties of the Secretary of State include supervising state and local elections, filing and verifying initiatives and referendums, registering nonprofits, collecting and preserving the historical records of the state, among others. 

Incumbent Steve Hobbs is running against challenger Dale Whitaker.

There were several heated exchanges between the candidates over election misinformation and disinformation, and over Hobbs removing the 30-day residency requirement for voting in local and state elections.

“The 30-day residency requirement is there to safeguard our local elections and make sure there is no transient voting and that the people voting are tied to that community,” Whitaker said. “We can’t allow people to come into our local communities on election day, provide an ID and say they live at an address in that county and then vote on those issues.”

Whitaker claimed Hobbs broke the law by removing the 30-day residency requirement, as first reported by The Center Square. 

“He removed any legal impetus for us to actually go after people who are breaking the law,” argued Whitaker.

Hobbs defended his decision.

“They have every right to vote,” Hobbs said. “We don’t want voter suppression, and that’s what would happen to stop people from voting when they move to a new community. They have every right to have a voice in their new community.”

He went on to say, “I support same day registering and same day voting because I’m all about people having access to the ballot box."

Hobbs emailed a follow up response to questions from The Center Square about removing the 30-day residency requirement.

"I will not disenfranchise new Washingtonians, and I will not disenfranchise military personnel and their families, like mine, who during parts of their service move frequently. All eligible voters have a right to a voice in their community through their vote," Hobbs said.

The candidates also sparred over Hobbs contracting with Logically AI to surveil social media for election disinformation and misinformation.

“We go down a dangerous path when we let people decide what is hate speech and good speech,” Whitaker said during a Wednesday morning interview with The Center Square.  “Americans don’t like to be surveilled.”

Whitaker accused Hobbs of bypassing the required bidding process in contracting with Logically AI.

“He bypassed that by going to South Puget Sound College and giving them 15% of the contract value, for them awarding the contract to his friends at Logically AI,” he claimed. “Logically AI is scouring the internet, compiling data on citizens and sending Hobbs reports bi-weekly and there have been people including state legislators that have been in those reports and everyday American citizens."

The accusations first surfaced late in 2023 and resulted in the Washington State Republican Party filing a complaint with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board against Hobbs for using taxpayers’ money to surveil critics.

The board dismissed the complaint, and nothing more came of it.

During the debate, Hobbs defended scouring social media.

“We have to scan social media and expose false narratives,” he explained. “These are people making public posts on their social media, and if I see a false narrative that’s trending, for example, one that says people are hacking into elections, then we know and work with the news media and put out our own social media and let people know.”

Hobbs referenced the ethics board challenge.

“Nothing bad happened and the ethics committee cleared me of that,” said Hobbs, who indicated contracting with Logically AI was cheaper than hiring a huge team of employees to scan social media.

Hobbs defended the contracting process.

"There is a lengthy and often complex state contracting process for all state contracts," he emailed. "This followed state process."

The debate moderator also asked the candidates about ballot security with all-mail voting.

“Going back to polling centers is an archaic idea that is incredibly expensive and not very secure,” Hobbs said, noting people can vote in person at the county auditor's office.

Whitaker said he supported all voting options, but remains opposed to requiring voters to declare a party preference on the outside of the envelope in a presidential election.

“There were over 40,000 people who returned their ballots in the presidential primary, who did not mark that party declaration box because they felt it violated their right to privacy,” he said, adding that Hobbs has resisted efforts to change that requirement.