Committee hears bill to centralize responses to voter-database requests, criminalize unauthorized disclosures

The State Government and Tribal Relations Committee on Feb. 19 heard testimony on Senate Bill 5892, which would make the Office of the Secretary of State the sole responder to public‑records requests generated by the statewide voter registration database and penalize unauthorized disclosures of sensitive identifiers.

Committee staff explained that Washington maintains county voter registration databases and a central statewide system (referred to in testimony as VOTWAS). The bill, a Secretary of State request, would prohibit county election offices from producing records generated by the statewide database in response to Public Records Act requests and would make it a class C felony to knowingly produce such records. It also makes it a class C felony for a state or local election officer to disclose without authority a registrant's driver's license or ID card number, Social Security number, or full birth date; staff said birth year, but not full birth date, is already allowable public information.

"This the bill simply clarifies the existing statute related to who may respond to requests of voter data," said Steve Hobbs, Washington's Secretary of State. "The secretary of state should be the only agency responding to these requests." Hobbs told the committee that statutory language has not kept pace with the development of the central database and that county workers currently can access statewide records, creating a risk of broader disclosure.

Representative Loyal Walsh questioned why locally elected county auditors or election administrators should be barred from sharing data they deem appropriate. Hobbs and staff replied the change is intended to reduce the risk of sensitive information being disclosed, noting technical limitations and funding needs to create restricted, county‑level views of the data.

Senator Marcus Richelli, prime sponsor, said the bill is aimed at protecting voter privacy and described it as "a good voter privacy and protection bill," urging members to treat sensitive information methodically through the Secretary of State's office.

Not all testimony favored the change. Laurie Lane of Buckley, who testified remotely late in the hearing, urged the committee not to pass the bill, arguing the measure "does not encourage clean voter rolls" and expressed concerns about election integrity.

No committee vote was taken during the hearing; the bill remains in the committee process.

Next steps: the committee recessed the hearing for further work and caucusing; no formal action or vote on SB 5892 was recorded at the meeting.