Washington Secretary of State, Again, Slaps Down Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims

Kim Wyman, a Republican, also rebuked Trump during the election.

Back when even Donald Trump seemed to think Donald Trump was going to lose the presidential election, he made it pretty clear that he planned to blame the results on voter fraud.

Kim Wyman, Washington’s Republican Secretary of State, was none too pleased with his rhetoric.

“In recent days, we have heard heated campaign rhetoric about American elections being ‘rigged’ and somehow predetermined. This kind of baseless accusation is irresponsible and threatens to undermine voter confidence on this most basic foundation of democracy,” Wyman said in a press release last October. As we reported, Wyman’s remarks were just one of two serious rebukes local Republicans delivered to Trump that week (not that it mattered, of course.)

Now, bizarrely, Trump is doubling down on his “it-was-rigged” rhetoric, promising a major investigation on possible voter fraud. By Trump’s unsubstantiated reckoning, he would have won the popular vote—which he in fact lost by 3 million—were it not for illegal immigrants casting ballots.

And once again, Wyman is firing back. She sent out this statement today:

“As Secretary of State, I take any allegations of voter fraud seriously and am eager to review any evidence President Trump has, or his investigation might uncover, to support his assertion. However, as I stated when he raised this issue last fall, I am confident the election system in Washington state is secure and prevents illegal voting. Our county elections offices and our State Elections Division have multiple safeguards in place to prevent illegal voting, and there is no evidence that illegal voting took place anywhere in our state during the 2016 election.”

While Trump’s assertions don’t seem to have any merit, the New York Times notes that they could help lay the ground work for stricter voter ID laws, which civil rights groups have long argued are really just an excuse to disenfranchise poor people.