Inslee wants to make it a crime to challenge elections

By Brooklynn Hillemann

Washington State Journal

OLYMPIA – On the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Capitol rally, Gov. Jay Inslee announced he will support legislation criminalizing lying about election results.

"It should not be legal in the state of Washington for elected officials or candidates for office to willfully lie about these election results," he said during a Jan. 6 press conference last week.

He was referring to alleged false statements made about the presidential election of 2020 being stolen by now-president Joe Biden.

Making false statements about election results without evidence would be classified as a gross misdemeanor under his proposal, Inslee said. A draft is undergoing finishing touches but has no sponsors yet.

Inslee said he believes the proposal will not violate the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech.

"The courts have held that speech that promotes violence is something that can be regulated to protect the civil society," he said.

Speaking forcefully and with emotion, Inslee argued the legislation is needed to prevent violence, such as last year's Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.

"The defeated President of the United States had a plan that failed on Jan. 6, but he is right back in the saddle of insurrection," Inslee said.

Former President Trump issued a statement earlier in the day reiterating the presidential election was stolen, ending, "Never forget the crime of the 2020 Presidential Election. Never give up!"

But the protest at the actual capitol occurred some distance from where President Trump was speaking at a rally in which he called for Americans to "peacefully and patriotically" call on lawmakers to reject the slate of presidential electors.

Gov. Inslee also urged members of both parties to denounce three Republican state lawmakers – Reps. Robert Sutherland of Granite Falls, Vicki Kraft of Vancouver and Brad Klippert of Kennewick – who attended a three-day "Cyber Symposium," which promised to provide evidence of hacking in the 2020 election.

"It is most disturbing to me that we had three Republican legislators who went to an organizing effort to continue that insurgency and to continue to sow doubt in our electoral process," Gov. Inslee said. "This is a cancer in our society."