Julie Anderson touts resume, independence in bid to be Washington’s next secretary of state | Washington

(The Center Square) – Julie Anderson relishes the possibility of being elected Washington state’s next secretary of state next month.

“I love the work!” she told The Center Square in interview conducted via email. “For the past 12 years, I’ve conducted hundreds of elections in the state’s second largest county as Pierce County Auditor. I’ve also recorded and preserved millions of records and performed licensing services. This exacting, technical work is work that I love and perform with excellence. I deeply enjoy making government work better for its citizens and look forward to modernizing every aspect of the office – from state archives to election security.”

Election security is a topic of concern among many Washington voters given the controversy over the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing Jan. 6, 2021, breaching of the US Capitol by protesters.

“The Office of the Secretary of State needs a leader who not only understands the work but will also perform the work without any political interference,” Anderson said. “To trust election results, we must trust the people administering them and we should shield them from partisan influence.”

Anderson thinks Washington’s elections are secure, but recognizes that’s not the perception among a significant portion of voters.

“Washingtonians should be confident in election results,” she said. “I am. But approximately 30% of Washingtonians are skeptical. We are susceptible to hearing news from other states and assuming that we have the same conditions here in Washington state. And, the Rossi-Gregoire election still looms large in the minds of election skeptics, despite the fact that approximately 200 election laws have been changed since that time to make our elections more secure and transparent.”

Washington’s 2004 gubernatorial race between Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi ended up being the closest such contest in US history.

Rossi was declared the winner in the initial automated count and again in a subsequent automated recount. However, after a second recount done by hand – and following a state Supreme Court decision allowing King County to reconsider newly discovered provisional ballots – Gregoire ultimately took the lead by a margin of 133 votes.

Anderson favors conducting more audits to combat election disinformation and continued vigilance when it comes to cyberthreats.

“But election security isn’t limited to cybersecurity,” she said. “Each election has nearly 200 steps in the process, each element of an election needs to be protected in different ways. From physical security of our buildings and staff, to protecting our supply chains, and working directly with political parties to provide election transparency, I’ve worked on every aspect of the past 12 years. To maintain and improve trust in the elections process, we must have nonpartisan, fair, transparent administration.”

Also high on her list of priorities she should be elected secretary of state: preparing for the arrival of ranked choice voting in Washington.

In a ranked choice system, voters rank all candidates for a given office by their preference – first choice, second choice, etc. The votes are initially tallied based on the first choice on every ballot. If no single candidate wins a first-round majority of votes, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and another round of vote tallying commences. If a voter’s first choice is eliminated, then the vote goes to the second choice and so on.

Eventually one candidate receives a majority – more than 50% – of votes and wins the election.

“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” Anderson noted. “So, let’s be prepared.”

She continued, “That’s why I support legislation to allow local jurisdictions to begin using ranked-choice voting in their districts. To be clear, I’m not promoting statewide RCV. I support local choice that voters request.”

Anderson pointed to evidence ranked choice voting is coming to the Evergreen State.

“From 2019 through 2021, King County has studied ranked-choice voting and it is still under consideration,” she explained. “In 2021, the city councils of Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver, Olympia, and Bellingham publicly supported the local option ranked-choice voting legislation.

“In November 2022, Clark County and San Juan County voters will decide whether to amend their county charters to allow for ranked-choice voting. And the City of Seattle will vote this November on whether to adopt ranked-choice voting or approval voting. Vancouver already amended its charter in 2009 to authorize ranked-choice voting for city offices.”

Anderson is confident she can prevail against current Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a former Democratic state senator for the 44th Legislative District. Hobbs was tapped by Gov. Jay Inslee in November to be secretary of state after then-Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, resigned to accept an appointment as senior security lead for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration.

“Every poll that we’ve seen demonstrates that I have a path to victory,” Anderson said.

A Crosscut/Elway Poll conducted last month showed Hobbs led Anderson 31% to 29%, with 40% of those surveyed saying they remained undecided.

Another poll from last month – this one by the Trafalgar Group – showed 40.4% of voters planned to cast their ballots for Hobbs, while 36.8% indicated they would vote for Anderson.

“I believe that voters understand that the secretary of state’s job is too important to entrust to an inexperienced, partisan politician,” Anderson said. “They want a professional, experienced administrator without political strings attached who will work for them, not for a political party or their own ambition.”

Washington Secretary of State Hobbs has been offered the right of rebuttal in the form of his own feature story.