Losing candidate for Washington governor sues over unsubstantiated voter fraud

Loren Culp, a Republican candidate for Washington governor who lost by 13 percentage points in the November election, has filed a lawsuit against multiple county officials and the secretary of state, according to King County Superior Court documents.

Culp received 43.3% of the vote against Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, who was reelected with 56.7% of the vote.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the gubernatorial race, officials say, but Culp has taken to court alleging issues that he says invalidate the statewide vote.

“The voter registration address list data which … showed many discrepancies and anomalies which destroyed the integrity of the vote in Washington,” according to the lawsuit.

Here’s what you need to know about the legal challenge.

Culp sues elections officials

The suit claims auditors in Whatcom, Island, Skagit, King, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston, Spokane and Clark counties — as well as Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican — allowed “voting anomalies” in the November election, which swayed the election in Inslee’s favor.

All those counties went blue except for Spokane County, where Inslee lost to Culp by 10%.

Those alleged anomalies include instances where “defendants failed to check to determine if the registrants were living, were living in the country, were living in Washington at least 30 days prior to the election, were registered more than once or had signed an oath on their registration application,” according to documents.

The lawsuit also alleges the county auditors “do not review voter registration applications to determine if the applicants are lawful.”

“The general election in the state of Washington is plagued with the immobility of defendants to ensure that the election meets the requirements … of Washington’s Constitution,” the documents state.

Culp demands the state pay for “an independent forensic auditor … to determine the lawfulness of the general election.” The lawsuit also requests a “temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction enjoining the Secretary of State from altering or destroying any registration or driver’s license application upon which the Secretary of State relied to place a registrant on the official list of registered voters in the State of Washington.”

The lawsuit was originally filed Dec. 10 but was amended on Dec. 24 to include the county auditors, according to the King County Superior Court website.

The original complaint says that Wyman, a Republican, allowed “intolerable voting anomalies” and did not adequately update voter files, including the Master Death List, which is a record of deceased residents that state officials compare to voter registration lists.

Officials deny voter fraud

Elections officials have repeatedly said they have not seen evidence “to substantiate his public allegations of voter fraud,” Vicky Dalton, the Spokane County Auditor, told McClatchy in an email.

Julie Anderson, the Pierce County Auditor, told McClatchy News in an email Wednesday that none of the auditors or counties “have been served with any complaint or court documents from ‘Culp for Governor’ or ‘Loren Culp.’

“To my knowledge, members of the Washington State Association of County Auditors have yet to receive any specific allegations of election errors,” Anderson said. “I can say with certainty that Pierce County has not.”

Anderson continued: “All election administrators stand ready to review actual data or concrete examples that might indicate a problem with registration or tabulation or procedures.”

November election

The state’s election results were certified on Dec. 2, The Seattle Times reported. Inslee, a Democrat, won by 545,000 votes, according to the Times.

Culp announced that he refused to concede in a Facebook Live video posted to his page on Nov. 9, McClatchy News reported.

Before the lawsuit was filed, Culp’s attorney alleged in a Facebook video that “over 800,000 votes were tallied than eligible voters who appear in the voter registration database.”

The Secretary of State’s Office responded to Pidgeon’s comments in the Dec. 4 news release.

“No evidence has been presented to suggest that 10,000 ballots were cast for deceased voters, or 300,000 people who moved out of Washington state fraudulently voted as Mr. Pidgeon alleges,” Wyman said in a statement. “Voter-roll maintenance is conducted on an ongoing basis by county election officials … We have safeguards in place before, during, and after each election, and conduct numerous audits throughout to ensure all election functions and processes are operating properly and accurately.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Losing candidate for Washington governor sues over unsubstantiated voter fraud."