Committee approves bill tightening voter-registration cancellation rules, reduces penalty for false challenges

The State Government & Tribal Relations Committee on Feb. 14 voted to report House Bill 1916 out of committee with a due-pass recommendation after adopting two amendments that narrow when county auditors may cancel a voter registration and change the criminal penalty for knowingly submitting false information in a voter-registration challenge.

The bill, as amended and reported, revises list-maintenance procedures by specifying that a county auditor may cancel a Washington voter registration only after verifying that a more recent registration the individual submitted in another state matches information in the Washington voter registration record. The committee also adopted an amendment that lowers the criminal penalty for knowingly providing false information as part of a voter-registration challenge from a perjury-level felony to false swearing, a…