Cynthia Stewart

By Cynthia Stewart, 1st Vice President and Advocacy Chair, LWV of Washington

We all want our voting systems to be safe and secure.  

After all, voting is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans and safe elections are vital to our democracy.

Every eligible voter’s ballot should count, particularly when democracy is challenged.  There should be no deterrent to prevent eligible citizens from voting.

Our elections are very safe in Washington state.  But a campaign is now underway for an initiative which proponents say will protect voting rights. The claims are far from the truth.

Initiative Measure IL26-126 won’t protect our voting systems.  In fact, if passed, the measure—commonly known as I-126—would disenfranchise a significant number of persons who are legally eligible to vote.

It would require all voters in Washington to have an enhanced drivers’ license or provide, in person, documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. Voters who fail to do so would be removed from voting rolls.  

Besides being burdensome to eligible voters, the measure would be tremendously costly for counties to administer.

You may have encountered proponents of I-125 asking you to sign a petition to qualify it for the November 2026 ballot. They may have told you that signing the petition will keep noncitizens from voting.   

The reality is, despite the assertions of initiative proponents, noncitizens are not voting.  Numerous studies -- all scientifically solid -- prove them wrong. Case in point is the finding by the Brennan Center for Justice of only 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes in 2016. That’s an incidence rate of 0.0001%. 

The real threat to election security is mis- and dis-information. Like the mis- and dis-information promulgated by proponents of I-126.

Supporters have until Jan. 2, 2026, to turn in the signatures of about 309,000 voters to qualify the initiative.

Protect your vote.  Decline to sign the petition that would put the measure on the ballot.  Join the League of Women Voters of Washington and a number of other pro-democracy groups in opposing the initiative.  For more information about the Decline to Sign effort, click here.