‘Why make it harder to vote?’: Gee, Ursula weigh in after 3 WA jurisdictions placed under state voting oversight

Three local governments in Washington will now have to get permission from the state before changing certain election rules, as Yakima County, the City of Yakima, and Pasco are under a new pre-clearance requirement.

The move is in response to past findings that their voting systems diluted the power of Latino voters, and now any changes must be approved by Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown.

Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin, co-hosts of “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, discussed the new pre-clearance requirement and what it means for the three jurisdictions.

“You know what a blow and go is?” Gee asked. “You’ve had them in your car. When you get a DUI, you are required to have it, so in order to start your car, you have to blow and suck in. That blow and go is not free; they have to get it inspected and pay to keep it in there. Pasco and all of them are complaining about being caught, saying this is costly. Well, if you weren’t messing up in the first place, you wouldn’t be going through this.

“But we have to put this on the books to make sure you continue to do the right thing,” Gee continued. “You guys dilute for years, for decades. They had nobody of Hispanic descent on the council, when a third of the people in those areas are Hispanic. Don’t do the wrong thing, and then we won’t have to have this, as you say, ‘costly bureaucracy.'”

Local leaders argue the mandate is costly and hands too much power to Olympia

Supporters of the change argued that it’s about protecting voting rights after the federal Voting Rights Act was weakened by the U.S. Supreme Court in recent rulings. Critics of the move, such as Yakima’s Mayor Matt Brown, said that it is another expensive mandate from Olympia, which hands more power to AG Brown, and adds a bunch of bureaucracy for local governments.

Ursula built on Gee’s argument, stating that stricter voting rules often target the communities that are already the most underrepresented.

“Then, trying to do things to make it harder for these populations that are already underrepresented to actually have a vote,” Ursula said. “The argument is always, ‘Well, these tighter voting rules are to protect election integrity.’ You can say it until you’re blue in the face that election fraud is extremely rare in Washington, and give them all the stats, but they’ll keep saying, ‘I remember, I heard, what about this,’ while it’s so rare, and then these rules make it much harder for people.

“People who already face more barriers, including low-income voters, young voters, elderly voters, people of color, or in these cases, in these particular jurisdictions, Latino voters,” she continued. “It’s like, why are we trying to make it harder for people to vote? I get it if there was rampant election fraud, but there’s not.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.