House State Government & Tribal Relations Committee
Event Log
Marissa Wright — Marissa Wright from Campaign Legal Center introduces herself and begins her testimony by thanking the committee and explaining that she will discuss the history of the Federal Voting Rights Act and why state-level reform is needed. She outlines the roadmap for her remarks, focusing on the Act’s history and recent developments, especially its preclearance, vote suppression, and vote dilution protections.
David Montes — Introduced as a speaker from the ACLU.
David Montes — Introduced himself as a staff attorney with the ACLU of Washington and began his testimony.
David Montes — Referenced as having spoken about the issue and its historical parallels to voter suppression.
David Montez — The speaker turns the floor over to David Montez of the ACLU of Washington to provide a state-level perspective on the issues being discussed.
David Montez — The speaker expresses appreciation that the committee heard David Montez, noting that he spoke on behalf of the ACLU about his work in the Sunnyside area.
Chris Stearns — In a brief committee exchange, the speaker is addressed in the context of voting rights protections and responds by thanking the Chairman and members, continuing the same discussion without any shift in topic.
Chris Stearns — Greeted as Vice Chair Stearns at the start of the panel presentation.
Chris Stearns — Vice Chair Stearns asks whether the University of Washington will start collecting data on Native American voters.
Chris Stearns — Asked a follow-up question about what methods are most effective for increasing voter participation and how success is measured.
Ms. Wright — The speaker repeatedly references Ms. Wright while building on her earlier remarks about voting rights. He starts by saying he wants to begin where Ms. Wright did, then continues discussing the Voting Rights Act, broader voting rights concerns, and preclearance. He also echoes her points about historical and modern ways jurisdictions interfere with voting, such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and voter roll purges, and notes the rollbacks she described. The sequence ends with the member thanking Ms. Wright and inviting her to weigh in on the questions.
Maria Fernandez — Maria Fernandez is introduced as being present and expected to speak on the Sunnyside matter, with additional background noting that her organization ran three Latinx candidates in the school district.
Maria Fernandez — Maria Fernandez, Executive Director of EIA (Empower and Latino Leadership and Action), introduced her organization’s civic education, electoral engagement, and leadership training work, including preparing emerging leaders for public office. She then described ongoing challenges facing Latino communities in Central Washington, especially signature mismatch problems, lack of credible and Spanish-language voter information, and the need for continual ballot education because ballot mechanics can be confusing. She also referenced prior legal action involving the Sunnyside School District and said the organization continues to confront harassment, intimidation, and what she views as voter suppression, including social media-based intimidation during the most recent election.
Sandra Zazate — Sandra Zazate was identified as a candidate running in a heavily Latino district in Sunnyside. The discussion then noted that she won her home district by almost 15 points but ultimately lost the election overall.
Jim Walsh — Jim Walsh was first in the queue and then engaged the witnesses in a continuous line of questioning about Washington State election law. He thanked the witnesses, noted their perspective from Washington, D.C., and asked whether Washington meets the Voting Rights Act’s historical-discrimination standard. He then pressed on whether registering noncitizens would dilute citizens’ votes under the federal VRA or the 14th Amendment, and whether purging voter rolls constitutes voter suppression. The witnesses began responding to these concerns as part of the same exchange.
Jim Walsh — Jim Walsh is directly addressed during a continuing exchange about redistricting, voter intent, and related statistics, with the discussion remaining focused on the same theme throughout.
Jim Walsh — Raises concern that the state may outsource too much essential work to NGOs.
Jim Walsh — Jim Walsh asks how the UW project coordinates with the Secretary of State's Office, what election-related data it can access beyond public records limitations, and whether it can work around exemptions to examine the processes, mechanics, and code underlying Washington's election system.
Jim Walsh — Representative Jim Walsh is recognized to begin questioning Ms. Fernandez about the prosecutor’s allegation that she would have broken the law. He follows up by trying to piece together the details, seeking clarification about how the allegation relates to raffle tickets and ballots and what specific conduct was said to be unlawful.
Jim Walsh — Rep. Walsh continued his questioning of Mr. Fernandez, first being recognized after the chair allowed a few extra minutes and then asking whether AIA is an NGO and whether it receives state funding.
Darya Farivar — Representative Darya Farivar asked Marissa to explain what remedies are approved under Washington’s WVRA, repeating the same question across two consecutive mentions.
Marissa — Marissa is asked to explain the approved remedies for WVRA in Washington, with the same question repeated shortly afterward as part of the same discussion.
Sharlett Mena — Sharlett Mena is addressed twice in a short procedural exchange, first as “Madam Chair” and then as “Chairman,” with brief appreciative responses indicating a continuous, courteous interaction.
Sharlett Mena — Greeted as Chair Mena at the start of the panel presentation.
Sharlett Mena — Is addressed by name in the course of the discussion.
Sharlett Mena — Addressed as Chair.
Sharlett Mena — Addressed as Chair.
Sharlett Mena — The legislature is referenced as working on ballot envelope changes; no specific member is named in the text.
Sharlett Mena — Sharlett Mena is addressed as Madam Chair twice during the same ongoing exchange, with brief acknowledgments that do not introduce any new substantive topic.
Captain Seth Keschel — His audit of the 2020 presidential election in Washington State was cited by the speaker as showing 300,000 phantom votes.
Director Megan Matthews — Named as one of the panelists for the overview of the Office of Equity and commissions.
Executive Director Mariasi Wenz — Named as one of the panelists for the overview of the Office of Equity and commissions.
Executive Director Namwin — Named as one of the panelists for the overview of the Office of Equity and commissions.
Executive Director Lisa Keating — Named as one of the panelists for the overview of the Office of Equity and commissions.
Kevin Waters — Greeted as Ranking Member Waters at the start of the panel presentation.
Megan Matthews — Megan Matthews introduced herself to the committee and identified herself as the Director of the Washington State Office of Equity, beginning her overview of the Office of Equity and related commissions.
Maria Seguenza — Introduced herself as the director for the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
Namwin — Introduced themself as the director of the Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs.
Lisa Keating — Introduced herself as the director for the Washington State LGBTQ Commission.
Rob Chase — The speaker thanked Rep. Reeves/Representative Reeves for attending the kickoff and supporting the effort from the House, and also thanked Senator Valdez for support from the Senate.
Rob Chase — Is addressed as the next questioner after the witness's response.
Rob Chase — Asks how the University of Washington defines voter disenfranchisement, noting it came from a constituent.
Rob Chase — The witness offers to speak with him further if he has a specific question for the constituent.
Rob Chase — Asks whether ballot rejection rates are under 2 percent and whether the data explain higher rejection rates for young, Latino, and Asian voters.
Rob Chase — Asks whether the witness can answer questions about turnout, not just ballot cures and rejections.
Rob Chase — Asks whether the witness can provide district-by-district turnout estimates using overlapping data sets and demographic inference.
Scott Eller — Introduced as director of the elections database at the University of Washington.
Lauren Wasinski — Introduced as a presenter from the University of Washington; surname may be uncertain but appears as Wasinski.
University of Washington witness — Explains that the project can locate voter addresses within and outside tribal reservation boundaries, but cannot determine whether voters self-identify as Native American.
University of Washington witness — Responds that the project only uses publicly available data and does not access private or exclusive data.