Anderson Calls Hobbs ‘Inexperienced Political Appointee’ in Washington Secretary of State Debate | Local


Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson didn’t waste any time going after Secretary of State Steve Hobbs during Wednesday’s debate hosted by the Association of Washington Business.

“The Secretary of State’s job is too important to entrust to an inexperienced political appointee,” Anderson, who is running as a nonpartisan for Hobbs’ job, said in her opening statement.

Democrat Hobbs, a former state senator for the 44th Legislative District, was tapped by Gov. Jay Inslee in November to be secretary of state after then-Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican, resigned to accept an appointment as senior security lead for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration.

Assuming the Aug. 2 top-two primary election results hold, Anderson and Hobbs will face each other in the Nov. 8 general election.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Hobbs was leading second-place finisher Anderson by a margin of 39.93% to 12.81%, edging out three Republicans, in the race to see who will complete the last two years of Wyman’s term.

Primary election results will be certified on Friday, by Hobbs. 

Despite Anderson’s broadside against Hobbs in her opening statement, the two candidates shared broad agreement when it comes to doing more to ensure the safety and security of the state’s election system, including more audits to further combat election disinformation.

“The office of secretary of state has evolved beyond that of simply overseeing elections and supporting our 39 counties to one where we’re protecting our democracy from cyberthreats and misinformation campaigns,” Hobbs said.

That’s not to say the two candidates saw eye to eye on everything.

Major areas of disagreement included the impact partisan labels have on a position that oversees elections at a time of national political polarization, as well as ranked choice voting.

“I don’t believe that political parties should be in the Secretary of State’s Office, and I think that the secretary of state in particular needs to be free from partisan influence,” Anderson remarked.

Hobbs was less concerned about party labels, because, “it matters what person you have in the office.”

To buttress his claim he noted previous Republican secretaries of state worked in a bipartisan manner, something he said he also did during his time in the state Senate.

Ranked choice voting also divided the two candidates.

As opposed to a winner-take-all system, in a ranked choice system voters rank all candidates for a given office by their preference – first choice, second choice, etc. The votes are initially tallied based on the first choice on every ballot.

If no single candidate wins a first-round majority of votes, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and another round of vote tallying commences. If a voter’s first choice is eliminated, then the vote goes to the second choice and so on.

Eventually one candidate receives a majority – more than 50% – of votes and wins the election.

Hobbs expressed concern a new voting system might be counterproductive, especially for minority communities and those with developmental disabilities.

“I am not against this idea,” Hobbs said. “What I am against is rushing forward and not thinking about those Washingtonians who are going to be disenfranchised.”

Ranked voting is a reality Washington will have to deal with, according to Anderson.

“Ranked choice voting is coming to Washington state, and I don’t know in which local jurisdiction it’s going to land first, but what I do know is we’re going to need a secretary of state who isn’t going to stick their head in the sand and is going to get ahead of this,” she said.


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