SHELTON, Wash. (AP) 鈥� Sixteen candidates for local office circled around the atrium of the civic center on a recent night in a logging town near the southern crook of Puget Sound. One by one, they sat at tables of inquisitive voters for what was dubbed 鈥渃andidate speed-dating.鈥�
As Auditor Paddy McGuire, a Democrat, navigated the room, he was bombarded with questions from voters, some of whom have spent the past two years marinating in paranoia about the 2020 presidential election. Were there illegal immigrants on the county鈥檚 voting rolls? What surveillance was used to make sure the drop boxes where voters can deposit mail ballots are secure? Did he illegally delete election data?
One table ahead was Steve Duenkel, a Republican who is challenging McGuire for the office that oversees elections in Mason County, population 66,000. He told voters that mail-voting, which Washington state has used for decades, was inherently risky and that they couldn鈥檛 be certain of who actually wins the election next month until there was further verification, like an audit.
A veteran election official who put off retirement because of what he sees as the risk Duenkel鈥檚 challenge presents, McGuire is incredulous at the campaign against him.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just hard, as somebody who grew up, as I said, believing in democratic values, that I鈥檓 being challenged by somebody who doesn鈥檛 believe that our elections here, locally or nationally, are free and fair,鈥� McGuire said. 鈥淧articularly here in Mason County, where his party wins a lot more elections than my party.鈥�
Election conspiracy theorists such as Duenkel are running for Congress, governor and secretary of state positions in state after state. But an unknown number also are running for one of the estimated 10,000 positions nationwide that administer local elections and oversee the people who actually hand out ballots, tally votes and report results.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to know where the vulnerability will be,鈥� said Democratic strategist Amanda Litman, whose group Run for Something has announced an $80 million effort over three years to back Democratic local election officials. 鈥淭hey can come from any direction, in any state.鈥�
Conspiracy theorists who parrot former President Donald Trump鈥檚 lies about the 2020 election already have made inroads in local election administration. The most prominent example is in Colorado鈥檚 Mesa County, where Republican clerk Tina Peters faces felony charges for her role in an alleged illegal download of voting machines鈥� data 鈥� data that ended up on election conspiracy theory web sites.
Peters has pleaded not guilty to the charges. She鈥檚 not charged with the download and distribution of the data, which was not a crime in Colorado at the time. The Democratic Legislature made it one in a bill inspired by the case.
During the forum, McGuire warned that the number of Peters-like election deniers running in Washington may mean the Legislature needs to adopt a similar measure. Duenkel sponsored a local screening of a movie made by Trump supporters that portrays Peters as a heroic whistleblower.
Reached by phone before the forum, Duenkel told a reporter he was 鈥渂usy鈥� and hung up. He did not respond to text messages afterward.
An Olympia native, McGuire moved to Mason County from Washington, D.C., in 2014. He became Oregon鈥檚 deputy secretary of state in 2000 and helped the state become the first in the nation to send every voter a ballot in the mail. He went to Washington to help run the Pentagon鈥檚 mail voting program for overseas military personnel.
But in 2018, Mason County鈥檚 auditor retired, and asked McGuire to run for her post. He won with little controversy. Then came the pandemic and Trump鈥檚 reelection campaign. The president began to claim the election was being stolen. Citing the pandemic, McGuire limited the number of observers of the vote count and installed a video feed so people could watch remotely, but that didn鈥檛 satisfy his critics.
鈥淰oting, to me, is one of the fundamental rights of an American citizen,鈥� said Lindy Martinez, a retired cook. 鈥淚f somebody is going to make it feel, like it is or isn鈥檛, like you can鈥檛 see鈥� how your vote is counted, she said, 鈥渢hen where鈥檚 my rights?鈥�
Martinez joined a group headed by Duenkel that went knocking on doors to find examples of possible voter fraud. It claimed that it found hundreds of 鈥渁nomalies鈥� in the voter rolls. But McGuire said the vast majority of the cases the office knew about or were simply erroneous. A Seattle television station retraced the group鈥檚 steps and found numerous mistakes in its report.
At one of the first tables he sat at during the 鈥渟peed-dating鈥� event, voters challenged Duenkel about the television station鈥檚 report.
Duenkel repeatedly told voters he was not claiming 鈥渇raud.鈥� But, at one table, after Duenkel described the purported 鈥済host voters鈥� he said his door-knocking uncovered, Marisa Kaneshiro, a legal assistant, responded: 鈥淵ou just alleged fraud right here!鈥�
McGuire faced pushback from voters, as well. At one of his initial tables, several voters asked about security on drop boxes 鈥� only one in the county has a video camera. McGuire argued that the existing sensors, like motion detectors, were as good as they could do right now. Minutes earlier, Duenkel had earned nods criticizing drop box security.
Outside the building, Barbara Weingarden, a 51-year-old dietary worker who described herself as politically 鈥渘on-denominational,鈥� said she was confused by Duenkel鈥檚 intimations of voter fraud.
鈥淪teve was bringing that in from Seattle, or other metro areas,鈥� she said, adding she was sure there was no cheating in her county. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a small community.鈥�
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Nicholas Riccardi, The Associated Press
