Leader behind slew of voter fraud lawsuits in Washington files to run for secretary of state

With Washington set to elect the next person to serve out the remainder of former Secretary of State Kim Wyman’s term in 2022, among the field of candidates will be one of the leaders behind a slew of lawsuits challenging the results of 2020’s election.

Election fraud narrative becomes common thread among state GOP candidates

Democrat Steve Hobbs was tagged to serve as secretary of state by Gov. Jay Inslee last year, after incumbent Republican Kim Wyman left for a new role with the Biden administration. Under state law, Hobbs will operate in the role until an election can take place in 2022. The winner of that race will serve out Wyman’s remaining term, which expires in 2024.

Among the five candidates registered to run against Hobbs is Republican Tamborine Borrelli, the director of Washington Election Integrity Coalition United (WEiCU). In that role, Borrelli has levied claims that hundreds of thousands of votes across the state were illegally altered in 2020, and that local auditors “used uncertified voting systems” to tabulate ballots. That saw her file a barrage of lawsuits across Franklin, Clark, King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, asking auditors in each county to turn over ballots for examination.

Borrelli’s lawsuit in Franklin County was thrown out by a judge in December of 2021, on the grounds that it not only missed the deadline to sue under state law, but was also not filed by a licensed attorney, instead getting submitted by Borrelli and two Franklin County men.

A separate petition to the Washington Supreme Court from the WEiCU was similarly rebuffed, with Court Commissioner Michael Johnston labeling the group’s claims as “hearsay and double hearsay.”

State Supreme Court official calls voter fraud lawsuit into question

“I can’t really call it competent evidence — it’s just a bunch of numbers,” Johnston said during a December hearing.

With her legal efforts challenging 2020’s results largely falling short, Borrelli appears to next be turning her attention toward a campaign for the office that oversees Washington’s elections, having registered to run in early March. Candidates for the office with similar voter fraud-centric platforms have surfaced in at least eight other states as well, with each making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud a central message of their respective campaigns.

Borrelli ran as an independent against Democrat Denny Heck for Congress in 2018, but garnered just 5.6% of the vote in the August primary.

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