Election fraud claims fuel Tri-Cities legislator’s write-in campaign for WA sec of state

Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick, has launched a write-in campaign for Washington state secretary of state after no Republican for the office survived the August primary.

A strong conservative is needed in the position to eliminate election fraud, he said.

As a state legislator, Klippert introduced a bill last year to end Washington state’s vote by mail system due to his concerns about election fraud, but the bill failed to advance out of committee.

The two candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot for secretary of state are Democrat incumbent Steve Hobbs and Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson, who has filed as a nonpartisan candidate.

Hobbs received 40% of the vote as one of two Democrats in the primary election and Anderson received 13% of the vote.

The three Republicans on the primary ballot received a combined 34% of the vote.

Klippert, a Benton County deputy sheriff and a recently retired colonel in the Washington State Guard, also was on the primary ballot but not in the secretary of state race.

After 14 years in the state Legislature he gave up his seat effective the end of the current year to file for the 4th Congressional District seat now held by U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse.

Klippert did not win enough votes in the 4th Congressional District primary to advance to the November election, leaving him free to launch a write-in campaign for secretary of state.

He says he was approached by state Republican leaders looking for a GOP write-in candidate and agreed to run to continue his efforts to revamp the Washington state election system.

“I am definitely running to win,” he said.

Klippert fears election fraud

As he continued to work on voter legislation with state staff, he and staff kept uncovering avenues for possible election fraud, he said.

Electronic voting machines are vulnerable to manipulation and mail-in voting also leave elections open to fraud, he claimed.

He believes that voter systems were manipulated in some counties in Washington state during the 2020 and 2022 election.

His claims of 2020 fraud in Washington state have been repeatedly refuted by election officials at both the local and state levels, including by GOP auditors in Benton and Franklin counties and by Washington state’s secretary of state during the election, Kim Wyman, a Republican.

“If elected as secretary of state I will work with the Legislature to make sure we have an election process to where the citizens of Washington state can cast their vote and know their vote won’t be manipulated by any process whatsover,” Klippert told the Tri-City Herald.

He told the Herald earlier this year that he believes the presidential election was stolen.

Klippert used taxpayer dollars to attend and speak at the “Stop the Steal” symposium held by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell in South Dakota in August 2021.

The event revealed no evidence of fraud in the November 2020 election, and even some of the experts Lindell had invited said the hacking data that he discussed was nonsensical.

But in statements defending his use of taxpayer funds, Klippert repeated long-debunked conspiracy theories.

“I do (believe the election was stolen), I think, one of the things I’ve learned in my studies, and at that cyber-security symposium, is that with our smart phones, our smart doorbells, our smart washing machines, you can hack into just about anything,” Klippert said.

In addition to being the state’s chief elections officer, the secretary of state also serves as chief corporations officer and supervisor of the state archives and state library, according to The Associated Press.

Klippert has posted information on how to fill out a ballot with a write-in vote on his campaign website, writeinklippert.com.

Steve Hobbs

Hobbs was appointed to replace Wyman, who resigned mid-term, to join the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Hobbs says with bipartisan support of state lawmakers he is enacting plans to increase the cybersecurity readiness of Washington state and its counties and combat malicious disinformation.

A 30-year military veteran and currently a lieutenant colonel in the Washington Army National Guard, he studied and analyzed cyberattacks and information warfare at the Defense Information School and the Command and General Staff College.

He also is working on voter education programs to reach young voters, those with disabilities, those who don’t speak English, new residents of the states and voters in tribal communities.

Julie Anderson

Anderson says she would champion legislation to designate the secretary of state as a nonpartisan office. A partisan secretary of state is neither compatible with the duties of the office nor with oversight of fair elections, she says on her campaign site.

“Passionate, devoted, and often well-meaning Democrats and Republicans will not trust the intentions of a secretary of state that doesn’t belong to their respective party,”she says on the campaign site. “Eliminating perceptions that are implicit with belonging to a political party will help to restore and increase public trust in the outcomes of elections.”

She also wants to make it easier for county auditors, who manage elections, to be unaffiliated with political parties.

If elected, she would conduct post-election audits for state measures and races, just as all counties in the state already do.

She also would combat false information and make trusted sources easy to identity, she said.

This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Election fraud claims fuel Tri-Cities legislator’s write-in campaign for WA sec of state."