By Mario Lotmore | Lynnwood Times Staff

December 4, 2020 – Today in a 2 p.m. live broadcast on the Culp for Governor campaign Facebook page, Stephen Pidgeon, accompanied by Loren Culp, alleged that 886,161 votes cast in the 2020 gubernatorial election appear to be from voters not registered in the Washington state’s voter registration database. 

Pidgeon went on to state, that if these votes are considered illegal, Culp won the gubernatorial race.

Stephen Pidgeon is an immigration and criminal law attorney in Everett, WA. Pidgeon ran for Attorney General for the state of Washington in 2012. Pidgeon is Loren Culp’s attorney and also claimed the results of the gubernatorial race were predetermined.

“When you have a candidate who doesn’t campaign, who doesn’t raise funds, who doesn’t put out any bumper stickers or put out any yard signs and then declare himself the victor before the first vote is counted, you have an indicia that somebody knew that the numbers were prefixed,” said Pidgeon.

Pidgeon shared the that the Help America Vote Act protects the integrity of elections. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed by the United States Congress (House 357-48 and 92-2 in the Senate) in 2002 to reform the country’s voting process. It was signed into law by President George Walker Bush on October 29, 2002.  The bill was a response to the voting irregularities of the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, HAVA establishes mandatory minimum election standards for states.

“The law provides funding to help states meet these new standards, replace voting systems and improve election administration. HAVA also established the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to assist the states regarding HAVA compliance and to distribute HAVA funds to the states. EAC is also charged with creating voting system guidelines and operating the federal government’s first voting system certification program. EAC is also responsible for maintaining the National Voter Registration form, conducting research, and administering a national clearinghouse on elections that includes shared practices, information for voters and other resources to improve elections. HAVA requires that the states implement the following new programs and procedures:

• Provisional Voting
• Voting Information
• Updated and Upgraded Voting Equipment
• Statewide Voter Registration Databases
• Voter Identification Procedures
• Administrative Complaint Procedures”

According to HAVA, all new registrants must provide their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number with their registration application to be registered to vote. If the applicant has not been issued one of these numbers, the State must assign a unique identification number for voter registration purposes.

Pidgeon stated that Wyman has an obligation under federal law to maintain an accurate and current voter registration list. He continued to assert that voting machines are subject to federal certification and criticized the current Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, for not certifying these machines.

“There is only one group in the nation that is federally certified to do that [certified the voting machines] and that group is called Pro V&V.  And they have not certified any of these machines since 2017.”

According to its website, Pro V&V verifies software performance and regulatory compliance.  Pro V&V certified Dominion Voting System’s software Democracy Suite 5.0 in 2017. Today, the Dominion System uses a software called Smartmatic which has come under some controversy by critics stating the Dominion software can be manipulated to alter voting results.

In a statement released by Secretary of State Kim Wyman on December 4, she refuted the allegations made by Pidgeon and implied that he is misinforming residents as there are two companies not one that are approved by the Election Assistance Commission to certify voting machines  — Pro V&V, Inc. and SLI Compliance.

“Before any system can be certified for use, it must be tested by an Election Assistance Commission- accredited, independent testing authority. There are currently two laboratories that provide this testing at the federal level — Pro V&V, Inc. and SLI Compliance, a division of Gaming Laboratories International, LLC. Then, prior to use in Washington state, election systems undergo review by our independent state Election System Certification Board. All systems in use in Washington state have undergone this testing by both state and federal authorities.

“Also prior to every election, including the 2020 General Election, the Office of the Secretary of State presides over tests performed by county election offices to ensure the accuracy of the vote-counting equipment.”

Wyman wanted to clarify that only Franklin county uses the Dominion Systems in the state of Washington.

“Franklin County is the only county in Washington state that uses a version of Dominion Voting Systems software and hardware. The system in use has been certified, and no issues have been identified.

“Additionally, neither the Dominion software in use in Franklin County nor any software used throughout the state relies on any technology provided by Smartmatic. In fact, Smartmatic released information last month about its supposed connection to election systems throughout the country.”

Pidgeon claimed he has evidence that the 2020 gubernatorial election was overwhelmed with fraudulent ballots to offset a win for Culp’s opponent, Governor Jay Inslee.

A total of 4,056,454 votes were cast in the 2020 gubernatorial election in which Governor Jay Inslee won with 56.56% of the vote.  Vote breakdown: Inslee – 2,294,243, Culp – 1,749,066 and write-in – 13,145.  Culp lost the election by 545,177 votes.

In his 10-minute presentation, Pidgeon shared that when analyzing the Secretary of State’s database, only 3,230,733 voters that voted in the 2020 gubernatorial election were registered voters in the state of Washington – a difference of 886,161 He continued to state that the database also contained 300,000 voters that left the state, some of which voted in another state.

“Mr. Pidgeon’s claim that only 3.2 million people voted in the 2020 general election is false. Nearly 4.2 million people voted in the Nov. 3 election,” said Wyman. “No evidence has been presented to suggest that 10,000 ballots were cast for deceased voters, or 300,000 people who moved out of Washington state fraudulently voted as Mr. Pidgeon alleges.”

Pidgeon, critical of Secretary of State Kim Wyman, further alleges that the Washington state’s voter registration database has never been maintained when compared to that of the United States Postal Service’s database.  He suggests that the Secretary of State’s Office compares the state’s voter registration database against the USPS database. 

“USPS will give them [Secretary of State’s Office] back all of those addresses with a 9-digit zip code, and will verify who moved, what their change of address is, and whether that address is deliverable,” said Pidgeon. “We have a database now that is what you would call anomalous… you have a problem with 886,161 votes that don’t appear to be registered voters in the state of Washington that nonetheless voted in the state of Washington.”

Wyman, defended the Secretary of State office’s voter registration maintenance process.

“Voter-roll maintenance is conducted on an ongoing basis by county election officials. The Office of the Secretary of State works with county election officials, the Department of Licensing, the Department of Health, the Department of Corrections, the Office of the Administrator of the Courts, the Social Security Administration, and the Electronic Registration Information Center to improve the accuracy of voter registration data. Each month, the Office of the Secretary of State receives a list of deceased people from the Department of Health and the Social Security Administration. These lists are compared to the voter registration list. Potential matches are flagged for research by the county elections offices and are removed if the person is found to be deceased. If evidence is found someone voted on behalf of a deceased person, county election officials forward that information to the county sheriff and prosecutor for further investigation and potential prosecution.

“County election officials work with their mailing vendors to modify the format of mailing addresses included in the voter registration database to ensure the U.S. Postal Service equipment can read and sort accurately using CASS-certified address validation software. This process ensures the ballots will be mailed to the proper address using the most efficient route, not that the addresses were invalid as claimed by the Culp campaign.

Wyman criticized Culp for his lack of evidence and not presenting his findings with county election officials.

“If Mr. Culp, his attorney, or anyone else believes they have evidence of fraud, I urge them to report their findings to their county election officials and the Secretary of State’s Office. As a member of law enforcement who purports to have evidence of felonies, Mr. Culp should be duty-bound to provide that evidence to the appropriate authorities so these cases can be investigated by county sheriffs and prosecutors, and possibly the FBI.

“The Office of the Secretary of State takes allegations of voter fraud seriously. If anyone has evidence of voter fraud being committed in Washington state, I implore you to provide that evidence to your county elections official and/or the Office of the Secretary of State.”

According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are 4,873,115 register voters on the state of Washington as of December 1, 2020.