“Thurston Voter Research Project” Results Analysis
A group calling themselves the Thurston Voting Research project (TCVP) canvassed 1,491 households in Thurston County asking questions about how long they lived there and if they voted. The TVRP is not associated with the Thurston County Auditor’s Office. Their stated purpose was to assess the accuracy of our voter rolls and identify any anomalies.
The Thurston County Auditor’s Elections Division in turn analyzed 1,927 voting records cited in a previously released "Thurston Voter Research Project” report. We found no anomalies. It is our conclusion that the list of questioned voter registrations from the TVRP illustrate:
- A misunderstanding of how voters are classified. For example, military and overseas voters and Inactive voters make up most (~67%) questioned voter registrations. The Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) allows military and overseas voters to register at their most recent Washington domestic address or an address of a family member. The UOCAVA also prevents local election officials from disclosing UOCAVA status. Inactive voters do not receive ballots.
- A misunderstanding of how fluid voter registration data is. The voter registration database is constantly updated based on normal maintenance by the Auditor’s Office and voter inputs. Data pulled at one point in time can quickly become outdated.
We were able to research every voter record. In analyzing the questioned voter list from the TVRP, we have placed voters into five categories:
- 465 Active Uniform and Overseas (UOCAVA) voters (24.1%)
- 450 Active, non-UOCAVA voters that have had a residential or mailing address update (23.3%)
- 174 Active voters with no address changes (9.0%)
- 826 Inactive voters (43.0%)
- 12 Canceled voters (0.6%)
The Thurston County Auditors elections division goes above and beyond what is required by state and federal law to keep our voter rolls up to date. Despite providing this information, their disinformation campaign continues.
More information is available from this report.