Legislation in Olympia could give people in Washington prisons their voting rights.

House Bill 2030, known as the Free the Vote Act, would allow people to vote in elections - potentially granting that right to more than 14,000 people in the state's prisons.

Charles Longshore, a Skokomish tribal member, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012 and is serving a 35-year sentence in a prison north of Olympia.

He said Black, indigenous and other people of color are disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration.

"We have been disenfranchised," said Longshore. "Our humanity has been taken, and primarily minority people are still continuing to be denied access to the polls."

Incarcerated people are allowed to vote in Maine, Vermont, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Republicans have expressed opposition to the bill - as well as Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs' office, which said voting rights shouldn't be given to people "who have not yet paid their debt to society."

Anthony Blankenship - a leadership team member with Free the Vote WA - said if people behind bars were able to vote, they would feel more connected with their communities, which would also make them less likely to reoffend.

"Building that sense of civic engagement, civic learning, and care about your community," said Blankenship, "is what we're hoping to do with this bill."

Longshore said it's hard to feel like a citizen when he doesn't have the right to vote.

"Our goal is to rehabilitate people and bring them home and make them better men or women than they were when they came in," said Longshore. "You can't do that without restoring their right to vote and making them whole and making us feel included and a part of the state."



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A new Indiana law, starting today, allows school board candidates to list their political affiliation on the ballot.

Candidates may choose to register with a political party, as independents or not disclose any affiliation. Those who do not select will have a blank space next to their name and straight-ticket voting will not apply to school board races. Those opposed to the new law said it injects unnecessary politics into a role traditionally focused on education.

Leslie Jacobs, a school board member for the Fayette County School Corporation in Connersville, is against the new law.

"In my 10 years, I couldn't tell you the political leanings of anybody on my board. Never comes up," Jacobs explained. "Our discussions are purely about educational opportunities, picking a superintendent, looking at budget."

She warned requiring party labels might discourage qualified candidates from running. Supporters of the new law said it increases transparency.

Jennifer Blackburn, a school board member for the East Allen County Schools near Fort Wayne, also opposes the new law.

"The scenario that there are four candidates potentially running and three are Democrat, one is a Republican -- this last school board election -- none of us were opposed," Blackburn pointed out. "As big as our county is, there are not a lot of people running."

The law will first affect school board elections in November.


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A three-part online training series on how to run for office and govern effectively begins Monday, designed for people running at any level of government office in Western states, including Wyoming.

The training is part of the Grassroots Democracy Program under the Western Organization of Resource Councils, a group organizing in rural parts of the West and includes Wyoming's Powder River Basin Resource Council.

Gwen Lachelt, political director for the group, said the series will help answer a broad range of questions.

"Everything from, 'Am I ready to run for office? How do I organize my campaign?' To, 'how do I govern, and how can I be an effective elected official?'" Lachelt explained.

As of Friday, Lachelt noted about 50 people had signed up for the training. Registration is still open until the event starts Monday at 5:30 p.m. MT.

Lachelt added she is seeing a lot of interest in running for office from people of all age groups and all backgrounds. She emphasized the group hopes to connect with Westerners who care about natural resources.

"Our goal is to build a bench of elected officials across our regions who will champion democracy and also work to protect the West's land, air, and water," Lachelt stressed.

Guest speakers at the event include Rep. Katie Sullivan, D-Missoula, who is the House Minority Leader, and Kevin Williams, a board member of Colorado's Delta-Montrose Electric Association.


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President Donald Trump has renewed calls for a special prosecutor to probe false claims of fraud in the 2020 election but an election expert believes it is likely just a new effort to raise funds.

Earlier this month, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media he had found new evidence implicating the Chinese Communist Party in 2020 election interference.

David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said Patel's approach is not typical.

"If the FBI has evidence of a crime, what they don't do is announce it on social media," Becker pointed out. "They don't send it up to the Senate to do further investigation. If the FBI has evidence of a crime, they investigate, they indict and prosecute. We are not seeing that here."

Despite dozens of lawsuits filed in the aftermath of the 2020 election, no federal judges cited a need to delay certification of the results, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal brought by several Republican-led states to overturn the outcome.

Trump's insistence of voter fraud contributed to 1,500 of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many were convicted of crimes but were ultimately pardoned on Trump's first day in office. Friday night, the Justice Department fired at least three prosecutors involved in the Capitol riot cases.

Becker noted firings in the agency are worrisome.

"If you normalize this reshaping of the entire federal civil service in key agencies, based solely upon loyalty, that is soon going to become the new normal," Becker cautioned. "We're going to see it done by both parties, and that will be to the detriment of us as Americans."

One of the biggest proponents of the myth that the 2020 election was stolen was MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, recently found guilty of defamation by a Denver jury. Lindell claimed Dominion Voting Systems manipulated voting machines to favor Joe Biden and called a former employee a traitor. Becker noted Lindell is one of many who've made huge claims without concrete evidence.

"It is easy to grandstand on the steps of a courthouse or on social media," Becker acknowledged. "But every single time they've been asked to put up or shut up in a court of law, where their evidence would be subjected to scrutiny, they have shut up."


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