The primary race for public lands commissioner in Washington may not be over quite yet after all.
That’s because the Washington State Republican Party is suing the King County elections director. A newly filed lawsuit claims the county illegally used an online tool that helped voters fix problems with their ballot, and that it affected the outcome in the primary race for public lands commissioner.
The state GOP alleges that King County Elections Director Julie Wise did not ensure that voter information transmitted over the app had adequate privacy and security protections because the tool is operated by a private company .
The party claims Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson would have defeated Democrat Dave Upthegrove in the primary race if the app hadn’t been used. The party wants the votes that were “cured” through the app to be invalidated.
“Curing” is the process of allowing voters to still have their vote counted by fixing problems with their ballot – typically due to a signature that doesn’t match the one state officials have on file or is missing from a voters’ ballot.