Washington AG forms team to ‘guarantee peaceful transition of power,’ fight election interference
Oct 16, 2020, 11:01 AM | Updated: 11:12 am
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a new initiative Friday, in a bid to fight election interference and ensure the safety and efficacy of mail-in voting.
Sec of State Kim Wyman: Never seen this level of vitriol in elections
The initiative will include “an internal legal team,” which will be tasked with working with other state attorney generals as ballots are tallied. The focus will on “preventing illegal election interference and ensuring every vote is counted in every state.”
“Washingtonians have a stake in the integrity of elections in all 50 states,” Ferguson said in a written release. “My legal team is prepared to defend democracy and the longstanding American tradition of a peaceful transition of power.”
The legal team assembled by Ferguson will be composed of attorneys well-versed in election law, constitutional law, and civil rights, and includes Washington Solicitor General Noah Purcell.
Ferguson also recently scored a major legal victory in the realm of election security in September, after a Yakima judge ordered a halt on a series of changes to the U.S. Postal Service enacted by Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
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This all comes amid President Trump frequently balking at a commitment to a peaceful transition should he lose November’s election to challenger Joe Biden. When pressed on the question, Trump has said “we’ll have to see what happens,” while saying that he believes the decision will ultimately end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The president has also repeatedly called mail-in voting into question, claiming that it will lead to widespread voter fraud.
Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman has countered those claims on more than one occasion, citing “misinformation and disinformation” as her biggest concern headed into November.
“I’ve done elections for a long time — this is my seventh presidential election — and I have never seen this level of vitriol,” she told KIRO Radio on Wednesday. “I have never experienced having someone in the White House be critical of administrative processes like the post office or election. So it’s really trying to get information to voters that’s accurate, really driving them to trusted sources like KIRO Radio, like the secretary of state’s office, like your county auditor election office page.”
