Mandatory voting proposal draws out election fraud fears

A proposal to make voting mandatory drew criticisms from 2,000 people in a legislative hearing Jan. 25.

“We are already in a moment of extreme distrust in elections, so you should not be doing anything to further that perception,” said Sharon Damoff.

Lawmakers mainly dismissed the large number of people signing on to testify, as they believe one organization was responsible.

“The election deniers have ramped up this year,” Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, said. “Conservative Ladies of Washington, they’ve got these mass emails asking people to sign up.”

Hunt is supporting a bill to make voting mandatory. T...