[ Upbeat funk plays ]
-You need somebody in this office
who understands the cyberthreat
and the threats of misinformation.
-I speak for Washingtonians and not a political party.
-Voters will decide this fall
whether secretary of state appointee Steve Hobbs
should stay on the job
or be replaced by Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson.
-I'm the only candidate
with experience managing elections.
-The two candidates both possess
impressive public service credentials.
-For democracy to work for all of us,
it must include all of us.
-But they disagree on who's most qualified for the job.
-I've worked in a bipartisan manner.
I've worked across the aisle.
-Which candidate will voters choose?
-Politics is a polarizing distraction
for the secretary of state.
-The special election
to pick Washington's next secretary of state,
coming up on "City Inside/Out."
♪♪
Welcome to this edition of "City Inside/Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
-Secretary of State Steve Hobbs,
appointed to the position in November of 2021,
is running against Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson
to keep his job for another two years.
It's a special election
following former Secretary Kim Wyman's decision
to step down last year and join the Biden administration.
Hobbs was the clear front-runner in the August primary
and has more than doubled his opponent's efforts
in fundraising.
But Anderson says her experience as an elections official
and her status as a nonpartisan candidate
could give her an edge this November.
And those aren't the only differences
between two candidates aiming to get your vote
to be our state's leader on overseeing your vote
and other duties this fall.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs says
his track record speaks for itself.
-I've spent my whole life in public service.
-After four terms as a state senator,
Hobbs was chosen by Governor Jay Inslee
to be Washington's 16th secretary of state,
following the departure of Kim Wyman
to the Biden administration last year.
-Senator Steve Hobbs will be our new secretary of state.
-Hobbs is Washington's first AAPI secretary of state
and its only person of color in statewide office.
He touts his 30 years of military service,
including two tours of duty;
and his current role, as a lieutenant colonel
in the Washington state National Guard;
as key experiences in his work to respond to cyberattacks
and other modern challenges to voting security.
-We're dealing with national security threats.
We're dealing with misinformation.
You saw what happened January 6th,
both at D.C. and our own state capitol.
We need somebody here who takes that seriously
and I've done it already for a year here
and I did it in the military.
-In an eight-candidate primary,
Hobbs was the lead vote-getter, with about 40% of the vote.
He's raised more than $583,000 for his campaign,
as of early October, and is endorsed by...
...AFL-CIO,
The Stranger newspaper, and the...
-That's why I'm honored to serve in this office.
-If elected, Hobbs would serve for two more years
before needing to face election again.
-There are effects to this that you're not thinking about.
-Unlike his opponent, Hobbs does not support
a new push to change our statewide voting system,
which residents of Seattle,
plus Clark and San Juan counties,
are considering this fall.
-Now is not the time to do ranked choice voting.
-Hobbs says, at a time when many people
are questioning our current voting system,
he doesn't want to alienate anyone
or possibly confuse people, like his mother,
an Asian immigrant for whom English is a second language;
or his son who's developmentally disabled.
-I just would say to the advocates, pause.
We got to think about that.
How do you deal with those issues?
Let's not disenfranchise anyone because democracy
is too important to disenfranchise people.
-Hobbs would be the first Democrat
to hold the secretary of state's office in more than 60 years,
but says his history of working across the aisle in Olympia
makes him the right person for the job.
-I've got Republicans who've endorsed me.
I've got labor and business have endorsed me.
Really, it's about the person that's in the office,
not about some kind of party label.
-For Julie Anderson,
it's exactly about that party label.
-It's incredibly important, I think,
for the secretary of state to be nonpartisan.
-Anderson was elected
as a nonpartisan Pierce County auditor in 2009
and has served as a Tacoma City Council member,
and YWCA executive director, prior to that.
-I'm Julie Anderson,
your nonpartisan choice for secretary of state.
-She says voters are fed up with partisan politics
and she's not taking any donations or endorsements
from any political party this fall, to prove her point.
-By foregoing all of the support and infrastructure
that comes with party affiliation,
I'm really putting my money where my mouth is.
I don't want a political party speaking for me
because I speak for Washingtonians
and not a political party.
-Anderson was second in the August primary,
with nearly 13% of the vote.
She's raised nearly $273,000 for her campaign,
as of mid-October, and has been endorsed
by former state auditor Brian Sonntag,
former Secretary of State Sam Reed...
...the former state House speaker and Tacoma mayor, and...
...former Washington state attorney general.
-I'll improve election security.
-Anderson notes that she's the only
certified election administrator in this race
and touts the work she's done to oversee accurate,
transparent elections for public officials of both parties.
-Experience matters.
It's work that I love because it's work that I know.
This is something that I do every day,
not something that I'm just dabbling in.
Have a lot of passion.
I think that's a big distinction.
Ranked choice voting is coming to Washington state.
-She also differs from her opponent
with regard to new options, like ranked choice voting.
-I support local options and innovations in democracy.
-Anderson says she wants the state House
to pass a bill it's discussed for six years,
to give local jurisdictions the legal authority
and support they need to pursue a different voting system.
-Let's pass a local option bill, so that my office,
the Office of the Secretary of State,
can get busy with rulemaking
and preparing local communities who decide to do this.
-Anderson is well aware she's
in an uphill battle for this job.
-I'm definitely an underdog.
-But this race could be close.
40% of voters in September said
they didn't even know how they'd vote for this position.
It's a choice between Julie Anderson's platform,
as a nonpartisan elections administrator;
and Steve Hobbs' approach, as a cyberattack fighter
who's already been on the job for a year;
as Washington voters select our next secretary of state.
And let's hear a little bit more
from the candidates for secretary of state.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs,
thank you for being here. -Thank you.
-Also, Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson,
thank you as well.
They're both running for the position
of secretary of state this fall.
And let's get right to it.
We had a coin flip before the show.
Secretary Hobbs, you will be speaking first
an opening statement, if you would, about a minute.
-Yeah, thank you very much.
Well, I'm your current secretary of state,
born and raised in Washington.
My mom came to this country.
She didn't know any English.
We learned English together watching "Sesame Street."
But, you know, her hard work gave me the values
of public service and love of country.
That inspired me to join the Army at age 17,
where I enlisted as a private.
Thirty-three years later, I'm a lieutenant colonel
in the Army National Guard, currently serving.
I deployed to Kosovo and Iraq
and, coincidentally, I didn't know
if I was going to be secretary of state in the future,
but I actually took part in the security
in Kosovo and Iraq, in the elections there,
including distribution of the nomination ballot box in Iraq.
Also, during that time period,
I served in the National Security Agency,
a graduate of the Department of Defense Information School,
and I'm a public affairs officer,
uniquely qualified in combating cyberthreats
and misinformation threats directed at our democracy.
I spent 15 years in the state Senate,
worked in a bipartisan manner to solve complex issues.
Reason why I've got endorsements from Republicans,
Democrats, newspapers,
and, you know, the Association of Washington Business
and the Washington State Labor Council,
who oppose each other
quite a bit... -Okay, okay.
-during session.
Thank you very much for that. -Yeah.
-Auditor Anderson, an opening statement,
if you would, a minute, please.
-Hi. My name is Julie Anderson
and I am the nonpartisan candidate
for secretary of state.
For the past 12 years,
I've served as Pierce County auditor,
leading an award-winning, nationally recognized team,
conducting hundreds of elections,
streamlining business licensing,
and protecting and preserving recorded documents.
I'm also a nationally and state certified public --
excuse me -- election administrator
and a state certified public records officer,
all of which has earned me the trust and endorsements
of over 40 election professionals
in Washington state.
I'm also running as a nonpartisan
because I believe that politics is a polarizing distraction
for the secretary of state
and it doesn't make sense to me that the umpire at home plate,
who's going to be calling balls and strikes,
should be wearing one of the team jerseys.
-Okay. We're going to get into that issue
in just a little bit here.
But, Secretary Hobbs, I want to take another tack here.
Your opponent has also pointed out
you were not a county auditor
before you were secretary of state,
as our past two secretaries of state were.
How do you respond to her assertion
that you don't have the right qualifications
for this job? -Oh, certainly.
I mean, the office of secretary of state
has changed quite a bit and it's never been
about doing the elections at the ground level.
That's what the county auditors do.
That's what 39 counties do.
Our role is to do certifications,
training, provide assistance, and, in this day and age, now,
it's cybersecurity and misinformation.
In fact, the secretary of state's office
is the only office where Homeland Security approaches
the secretary of state of various states
for a security clearance, which I already have.
So, the office is involved quite a bit.
We don't want another January 6th to happen
and it happened here in Washington state as well
because people have these myths
about elections here in the state of Washington
and we're running them here really well.
-Okay. Auditor Anderson, I know you've heard this, too,
from your opponent -- the job has changed.
It's not just an auditor's role
and maybe you don't have the experience
that he has in dealing with cyberattacks
and other present-day problems for our elections.
How do you respond to that?
-Well, I'd say I have more experience
responding to cyberthreats,
having 12 years of experience on the job.
You know, one thing that we do have in common
is that we are not IT security experts.
We rely on people that have training and certification
and lots of experience to do that.
What we do is respond to the threats
that they bring to our awareness.
And it's what you do, responding to zero-day threats,
to scans on firewalls, et cetera.
And I would say that elections hasn't changed that much.
It is still very much a people-centered process
and there are 40 election professionals who agree.
They know that experience matters
and that's why they want to see me in the seat.
-Okay. Let me follow up
with another piece with you, Auditor Anderson,
with regard to being a nonpartisan candidate,
which is attractive to some voters
who are fed up with two-party politics.
But let's say you're elected, you go to the legislature,
you give them your budget request, for example.
Can you truly stay independent, at that point,
knowing both party caucuses
are going to be putting some pressure on you?
-Well, sure. I'm going to keep
the conversation centered on common values --
access to elections, increased security and transparency.
And I've got good relationships with legislators
on both sides of the aisle
and I'm going to walk into those meetings
having prepped and met with them ahead of time
and I'm going to be providing them
with evidence and data and experience,
so that I've got well-crafted proposals
and I'm going to help make sure
that the bills that they bring forward
don't run into a buzz saw.
-Okay. Secretary Hobbs, let's try to deal with this issue.
You've heard your opponent's desire
to make this role nonpartisan.
If the goal of secretary of state is
to restore voter trust from voters
of all political leanings, why run as a Democrat?
-Well, you know, there was a motto
that we had in our infantry battalion in Kosovo,
which was, "Deeds, not words."
It's about the person in the position
and the deeds that you do.
You know, I've worked in a bipartisan manner.
I've worked across the aisle.
I have endorsements by Republicans and Democrats.
I've crafted bipartisan budgets.
Really, it's about the person in there.
You know, we've had partisan officeholders in here.
The last three were Republicans and the people trusted them.
So, I don't think it really matters, one way or the other.
You know, I'm not going to shy away the fact I'm a Democrat,
that I'm pro-choice, I'm pro-environment, pro-labor.
But I'm also not going to hide
from the fact that I work across the aisle
in a bipartisan manner to get things done.
-There was a recent Seattle Times poll
that showed 34% of the people questioned --
mainly Republicans, but some Democrats --
said the 2020 presidential election
had some fraud or major fraud.
How do you turn the tide on this perception?
And please bring up some specific plans.
Secretary Hobbs, you, first. -Yeah, sure, absolutely.
It is disconcerting when you see a poll like that,
especially with Washingtonians.
You know, we've done a really good job,
The Secretary of State's Office and the Auditor's Office,
to put out, you know, information about, you know,
turning in your ballot, remembering to vote.
What we have not done a good job about is talking
about the vote process, the life cycle, the ballot.
That's what we're doing now.
We're working with our 39 county auditors in doing this.
We're doing the Vote with Confidence campaign,
talking about not just getting out the vote,
but letting people know, "Hey, did you know
we check every signature?"
The county auditors do.
Did you know that it is transparent?
You can actually go to the county auditor's office.
You can go to Auditor Anderson's office
and check out the process right there.
We haven't done enough of that and we need to start doing that
because people have doubts about our elections,
simply because they don't know how elections are ran.
-Okay. And, maybe, Auditor Anderson,
I can ask you a similar question here.
Talk to us about what you've done in Pierce County
over the last couple of years
or maybe something specific in 2020
and what you could bring to this issue
of restoring voter trust if you were elected.
-Well, I have to tell you
that being a nonpartisan election administrator
has really helped us in Pierce County.
I have great relationships with both political parties,
who are observers on the floor in our elections division.
And we've instituted things like adding hash checks
into our logic and accuracy meetings,
that are observed by both political parties,
before we begin tabulating ballots,
as well as before we certify the election.
We've also involved them in expanded auditing
and have piloted a risk-limiting audit,
which is something that I'd like to bring to the state
and have all 39 counties testing the same state race
in a unified, risk-limiting audit
that is a statistically valid sample size.
We've done a ton of stuff with increasing access
to elections, too,
that have not been viewed with skepticism or concern
by either political party.
So, you can expand access,
you can expand integrity and transparency,
without losing the trust of either political party.
-Let me try to expand on that point, though,
this idea of restoring voter trust
and getting more people to vote, I mean, this is a big deal.
41% of eligible voters in the August primary that you ran in
decided to return their ballots.
Even lower in Pierce County, unfortunately.
Tell us about some programs you would put in place,
if you're elected, to encourage voter participation.
And I'm talking about everybody out there --
immigrant communities, marginalized communities, too.
-Yeah. First of all, eliminating barriers,
so we can facilitate access, and then we'll talk
about motivating people. -Okay.
-In Pierce County, we have
voluntarily translated election materials and ballots
into our most prominent languages in Pierce County.
We've instituted this toll-free hotline
that is available year-round, not just during elections,
where the person's primary language,
they can call a dedicated 1-800 number
and speak directly to an election official
without being put on hold while we find a translator.
We've also contracted with all three of our library districts
so that, on Election Day, we have 27 library branches
that are extensions of our office.
So, whether a person forgot to register,
they've lost their ballot,
those are things that give them an excuse
to sit out the election.
Instead, they can go to their local library branch,
one that they know and love and trust,
and get their business done.
We're saving 14 miles per voter on average with that
and, if we instituted something like that statewide,
you're talking about close to 300 branches.
-Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to talk
about libraries in a little bit.
But maybe I can talk to you, Secretary Hobbs.
Getting more people to vote, marginalized communities, too?
-I just talked about the Vote with Confidence,
which was a big deal because the legislature
really didn't help out in resources
and so, getting that trust from the legislature,
getting those resources to put the word out about the election,
I think, will greatly help in the general election
and helping our 39 counties.
But the other thing that we're starting to do, too,
is I've stood up in office
to do more voter outreach and education.
I'm a person of color. I understand these communities.
And so we're going to hire people
that come from these communities,
that know the language, know the culture.
I talked to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
at the Tri-Cities to try to team up with these organizations
that have direct communication with voters
that don't even know that they're voters, right?
And giving them the opportunity
to not only register to vote and vote,
but letting them know about the voting process as well.
We're also looking at a mobile game app
to inspire young people before they become voting age.
And so we're looking at those things
to really increase our voter turnout.
-Thank you for that. Auditor Anderson,
so, we have Seattle and two counties in our state
voting on alternative voting systems this fall.
We're also likely going to see another push
for ranked choice voting at the state level
in this next session, with that local options bill,
which would give cities or counties
the ability to choose a new voting system.
You and your opponent have
some different opinions on this issue.
Tell us what your place is on this, your position.
-My position is that I trust voters and I respect communities
and we're running out of time.
It is not a matter of if.
It's a matter of when ranked choice voting
is introduced in Washington state.
And, yes, a local options bill has been kicking around
in the state legislature for six years
and continues to gain more and more momentum
and three jurisdictions will have this question
on their ballot.
And what my opponent fails to recognize --
he says, "Now is not the time. Now is not the time" --
we are running out of time.
First-class cities and charter counties
don't need the permission of a local options bill
to institute ranked choice voting.
We need a leader, now, who is going to start drafting rules,
start doing training, and start educating the public.
And that's me,
because I trust the voters and I respect communities.
-Secretary Hobbs, can you respond to this, please?
-Yeah, you know, absolutely.
You know, as secretary of state, I actually have to abide
the choices of local elections, so I can't like ignore it.
But what my opponent doesn't understand is
she doesn't come from these communities of color, right?
I'm a son of an Asian immigrant.
What concerns me is these naturalized citizens
that just became citizens,
where English is not their first language,
and now you're asking them to vote
in an alien way that they're not used to.
And we don't even have enough resources now for voter guides
to all these citizens that are going to vote.
I also think about my son, my middle son,
who's a child of special needs.
He's got developmental disabilities.
It's very easy for him to vote in the current election.
You just circle in and then that's it.
But to teach him how to do ranked choice voting
is very difficult to him.
So I think about my son.
I think about my mom,
and I also think about the misinformation
that's happening right now.
You're basing it upon an algorithm, right?
Right now, it's very simple --
whoever has the most votes, if it's a close race, wins.
-Yeah. -But then you got an algorithm.
Look, at this particular time, I don't think it's a good idea,
based upon what we're seeing out there.
-Okay. You had something you wanted to say.
-Yeah. Scare tactics is not a good look
in the secretary of state.
One of the reasons that I support
the Washington State Voting Rights Act is
local jurisdictions and communities
can't institute new forms of elections
that are going to have
a negative impact on sensitive populations
and there is no peer-reviewed evidence that, in fact,
ranked choice voting has those negative impacts.
And also, algorithm is a really fancy word
and sounds very complicated, but it basically means
how votes are reapportioned
in the ranked choice voting process.
And there are 50 communities around the United States
that have done that very transparently
and easy to understood.
I also have the technical background
and practical experience
to know that we can actually have
advocates and skeptics in the community
rerun the results of ranked choice voting
with open source software. -Okay.
-You know, I -- -In the name of fairness,
please, yeah. -Well, yeah.
I don't think it's fair to say that it's a fear tactic.
You know, I look at it from the perspective
of the BIPOC community.
You don't have that perspective. -Mm.
-And I come from that community.
And so to say that I've
completely dismissed that is just insulting.
You know, I grew up in a community like that.
I suffer from discrimination.
And I saw my mom get attacked because, you know,
she didn't speak the language correctly, in their minds.
So, you know, I respect Auditor Anderson
because we fight, we're against the Big Lie
and she runs elections well in her county,
but, with all due respect,
we have to think about the communities of color
because they have been disenfranchised for so long.
-Okay. Please. -And I am listening
to communities of color
who are asking actively for ranked choice voting
and I su-- -That is not true.
-Okay. -and I support -- I support --
I trust voters and respect communities.
-Okay. I'd like to try to move on to another issue.
Thank you for bearing that out here.
Specifically, I wanted to talk about some of the other roles
of the Secretary of State's Office.
Supervising state libraries is one of them.
They're housed in several state agencies
and prisons, state hospitals, too.
Secretary Hobbs, I remember meeting up with you
a few weeks ago outside the
Washington Talking Book & Braille Library here
in Seattle. You had some ideas
about libraries in our state and institutions
that I thought was very interesting.
Break that down for us. What are you thinking about?
-Absolutely. You know, we've got this great asset
in our state prisons and our state hospitals
and, you know, it should be more than just checking out books
and checking out movies, so, we're looking
at using the place as a place of therapy
so incarcerated folks can gain skills.
We're thinking about, maybe,
work study situation in a podcast.
I know they do in the California penal system,
called "Ear Hustle."
We're also, for the very first time,
that my office has pushed for is in youth detention facilities,
where they didn't have this access to a library.
So, we're very excited about that
and also getting ready for incarcerated folks
as they leave the prison
to become active members of society,
to teach them about voting, you know,
and how the process is done.
-Auditor Anderson, you also brought up
some interesting ideas when I visited with you
a few weeks ago, about libraries
and how they could be used more fully.
Some thoughts on this, please.
-I think I already gave an example
of how we can provide some leadership,
through the state library program,
to local library districts
and replicate the model
that's successful in Pierce County
for Election Day support.
I think that some of the things that have me
most energized are around state archives.
-Also supervised by the SOS.
-Yes, absolutely right.
What I'm concerned about and excited about
is all of the digitally native records
that are currently being generated
by state and local government and I'm not sure
that everybody is preserving those so that they are indexed,
they keep all their metadata
and all of the associated documents.
Those are important records
for holding government accountable
and I'm a state certified records officer
and have some ideas how to do that.
-Okay. Thank you for breaking those pieces down.
I wonder if I could jam in another short question
before the closing statement here.
A big part of your role will be submitting a budget
to the legislature, if, indeed, you're elected.
Talk about priorities you set in that budget.
Would you be asking for more money?
Some thoughts about this, Secretary Hobbs, you first.
-Absolutely. What I'd like to do is
provide more funding for the counties.
We doubled our cybersecurity.
We set up a division dealing with misinformation,
but we need to provide more resources for counties,
especially for our 39 county auditors
that administer the elections in our rural parts of the state.
I had mentioned some of the stuff I want to do
for our prisons and our hospitals,
with the libraries there.
Also, I'd like to go
in the rest of the youth detention facilities.
I mean, that'd be very, very helpful.
And then, of course, I want to roll out
this mobile game app to really inspire young people
to get into civics and get into voting.
-Auditor Anderson, some thoughts about budgeting priorities.
If you're elected, would you be asking for more
or trying to cut back? Talk to us.
-Well, the Secretary of State's Office
has the biggest budget they've ever had,
and more FTEs than they've ever had.
-Full-time employees. Keep going.
-Full-time employees.
And maybe that's the right size
and maybe that's the right budget,
but one of the things I'm going to do is
to leverage what we currently have
for some of the outcomes that we've talked about.
Let me give you one small example.
The corporations and charitable filing division
has over 700,000 registered businesses and charities.
Conservatively, 300,000 of them have employees.
I want to reach out to those corporations and legal entities
and ask them to join an annual Get Out the Vote campaign.
That would be a great way to reach
a lot of people directly through their workplace.
So, that's one example of using what we have to the best effect.
I will probably be approaching the state legislature
about standing up a nonpartisan observer program,
where we work with universities and colleges
to get subject matter experts, like attorneys,
people getting those cybersecurity certificates,
et cetera, and training them
and getting them involved in election observation.
-Thank you for that. It is time for that closing statement.
And Secretary Hobbs, you're first.
Keep it to a minute, please.
-This election is also about job performance.
Have I done a bad job?
And, you know, obviously, the voters will decide.
But, you know, let's look at this.
I have two special elections that we have ran
and a statewide primary
that we have done in the office,
coordinating with 39 county auditors.
We have actually pushed back
on three misinformation campaigns
and a real-world cyberthreat from Russia
that actually happened.
We doubled our cybersecurity.
We created a team that's going to combat misinformation.
We also create a team that's going to go out there
to underserved communities.
We launched the Vote with Confidence campaign,
which people want because we need to address
what happens with your ballot, so that we can lower this view
that elections are bad in the state of Washington.
I've also talked about putting field offices out there
for our corporations and nonprofits and charities,
so that people can actually go to a person face-to-face
to deal with their issues.
And we've talked about the libraries as well.
So, I hope I can earn your vote and I would love to have
an additional two years in this office.
-Great. Auditor Anderson, last word.
-Polarization is at an all-time high in our country
and trust in government, unfortunately,
is at an all-time low.
And now is not the time to be having a secretary of state
who's an untested, inexperienced,
partisan politician.
I offer over a decade of direct experience,
have the support and trust
of election administrators from all parties,
and it doesn't make sense to me to have
a partisan holding the office
that doesn't have any experience.
I have ideas for election access,
increasing transparency and security,
and I know that I can get the job done
and I look forward to working with community.
-Alright. Thank you very much for this.
And we will be right back.
♪♪
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♪♪