Why did bill against election lies fail?

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 23, 2022

The proposal, Senate Bill 5843 did not have sufficient support to pass the Senate and be sent to the House for consideration. SB 5843 would have made it a crime for elected officials and candidates to willfully lie about election process or results. It appears dead in the water; for now.

Isn’t it a reasonable expectation of Washington voters that our senators and representatives are telling us the truth on all matters regardless of whether they are Republicans or Democrats? Why are Republicans blocking this legislative proposal? In their minority report, Republicans simply stated, “Do not pass.” Why?

Does the Republicans’ block of this legislation now mandate that Washingtonians can expect that we will need to fact check everything they claim during campaigns? And this checking will not just be limited to Republican candidates. Republican sabotage of this legislative proposal brings all political candidate statements into question. The difference is that Democrats stepped forward to attempt clean-up of election campaigns.

Charles M. Ivory

Mount Vernon

Editor’s note: The sponsor of the legislation, state Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, said the bill did not advance because it did not have enough support from members of either party.