By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

If elections aren’t protected, nothing else really matters.

That’s the essence of what state Attorney General Nick Brown told more than 140 people at Sunday’s monthly meeting of West Seattle Indivisible at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Admiral.

Brown – “a proud West Seattleite” – was the first of three guests invited to discuss “all things election,” as WSI leaders Laurie Reinhardt and Amy Daly-Donovan described the theme, but he had a lot more to say. We recorded it all on video, including his replies to attendees’ questions:

As demanding and intense as the AG job is, Brown insisted it’s “so much damn fun!” The AG is not only “the state’s lawyer” but also constitutionally charged with advocating for the people of Washington, he explained. That’s led to a variety of actions to protect consumers and the environment, among other things, and it’s in no small part why, he said, “Every now and then I get to sue the President of the United States.”

70 times, to be specific, Brown said, adding, “I do not relish suing the president … (nor relish that a major part of his job) is protecting people from the president.” Among other results of those lawsuits, he said, the state has kept the federal government from taking away “15 billion dollars in all sorts of funding,” from cancer research to public-school funding that he said was targeted “because we have the audacity to provide (diversity/equity/inclusion) programs” that the administration opposes. He also accused the administration of “hypocrisy” by trying to cut crime-victim funding allocated by a proram “signed by President Ronald Reagan.”

Then to the topic of the day: Brown said he has been active in election protection with other states’ attorneys general and that various possible scenarios are being planned for, even things that were once unimaginable, like armed federal agents showing up at polling places. “The federal government is the biggest threat to the safety of your elections … they want you to be scared, they want your neighbors to be scared … because when more people come out and vote, they lose.”

He didn’t discuss specifics of what’s being planned in response to such “scenarios,” but in open-microphone Q&A, one attendee asked what would be done if indeed “armed federal agents” showed up. It’s illegal, Brown clarified, “and we would be in court immediately.” Could lawbreaking agents be arrested by local police? They could, “but I wouldn’t advise it,” he replied.

Another question involved federal agents breaking the law now – with an attendee asking about the masked ICE officers disregarding our state’s new law against masked law enforcement. “We are running aaainst strong headwinds … a similar law was thrown out in New York” recently (here’s an early-August report).

Other questions included issues related to the immigration crackdown – which Indivisible leaders noted would be next month’s spotlight topic – such as whether the state could take action to end the use of restraints on ICE detainees flown out of Boeing Field. “States have limited authority to dictate how the federal government operates” in situations like this, Brown said, though he wants to hear about “civil-rights violations” “ICE can operate but they can’t violate your civil rights.” A later question involved the recent reports that “shock gloves” were being procured for ICE officers; “if we see them, we’ll evaluate” what to do, Brown said.

He also was asked about “getting money out of politics” – our state has some “good transparency laws,” he replied, and “fairly (stringent) donor limits.”

Other questions brought the discussion back to the upcoming election – with Brown reiterating that the idea of the Trump Administration “attacking” the election process “is not hypothetical any more … Twice he’s tried to change how we count votes. Every state that has said ‘no’ (to such changes) and has been sued (by the federal government) has won … the administration has lost 20 cases.” The best thing voters can do, he added, is fill out the ballot and get it into a drop box – not the US Mail – as soon as you get it (mid-October for the November general election); don’t procrastinate.

That was also stressed when specifics about King County Elections operations and plans emerged in a presentation by chief of staff Kendall Hodson – here’s our video, including the Q&A that followed:

KC Elections has about 80 permanent staffers but will soon be hiring hundreds of temporary workers for the general election. They’re predicting a 75 percent turnout, similar to 2018, which would be double the primary turnout. She too stressed voting sooner rather than later, and offered an added benefit – the earlier ballots are in, the higher percentage of votes they’ll be able to report on election night. In 2020, Hodson said, 90 percent of the results were available on Election Night because so many had been turned in early. She said they hope to have 100 drop boxes in place (update, a KCE spokesperson we checked with today confirms they hope to add 9 countywide but aren’t ready to say where). Also, she advised, sign up for the ballot-tracking service that will notify you when yours is received/verified/counted. Something else you ca do right now – be sure your voter registration is up to date.

Hodson explained why mail-in voting is “accurate and secure,” detailing the auditing and observation measures in place, both in person and via 80 security cameras, as well as access that is limited to workers that have to have both badges and authorized fingerprints.

Along the lines of what Attorney General Brown had mentioned, KC Elections is also “preparing for all scenarios,” with staff training and “incident-response practice,” going through scenarios such as “what if a federal agent is standing in front of (a drop box) – how would they reach the Attorney General’s office as quickly as possible?”

Ballot security was the first question asked in Hodson’s Q&A period. She explained the steps a ballot goes through – it’s scanned, the signature is photographed and verified – even before the ballot envelope is opened – and it goes to the tabulation system. All that takes a lot of people-power, and that led to an extended pitch for those temporary jobs we mentioned earlier – KCE’s voter-services manager Kenny Austin, a West Seattleite, said they’re “good-paying union jobs” and you can register on the county’s jobs site to be notified when they’re posted.

Also speaking to West Seattle Indivisible, executive director Charles Douglas of Common Power, which leads trips to knock on doors in other states and cities, explaining that his organization was started in 2018 ‘by concerned citizens tired of not having an impact on federal elections.” Here’s our video of how he and staffer Binh Truong explained their work:

They urged Indivisible members to join them – on one doorknocking trip or many: “Any Senate or House race worth anything, we’ll be there,” and some other races of outsized importance too; specific candidates they’re supporting this fall include Texas U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico and Georgia U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff. It’s up to volunteers to cover their travel costs, but for those who truly can’t, Douglas said, help might be available, such as matching funds and donated airline miles. The group so far is planning 30 trips “across 13 states.”

Before the two-hour meeting concluded, the group also heard a slew of announcements, including an exhortation to register people to vote – WSI’s Randy Winn pointed out the millions of people who didn’t vote, registered or not, in major recent elections, outnumbering those who did – and pitches for postcarding, including a commitment to fill out and send at least 5,000 postcards urging “no” votes on November’s three state ballot initiatives. Dates for those events and many more, including recurring demonstrations and trainings, are on the WS Indivisible website here. That’s also where to find info about their next general meeting, 3:30 pm Sunday, September 20.