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Category: Secretary of State Steve Hobbs

Baseless attacks on voter-registration partnership weaken us all

Baseless attacks on voter-registration partnership weaken us all

By Secretary of State Steve Hobbs A one-of-a-kind national resource for state elections leaders like me is being torn apart by partisanship and misinformation. The voters of Washington are worse off for it. Like dozens of states, Washington’s elections rely on collaboration to help keep our voter rolls valid and guard against double-voting. That’s accomplished through the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which Washington founded with a bipartisan group of six other states in 2012 as a shared-cost, independent, and…

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BANNING BOOKS: AN EGREGIOUS FORM OF CENSORSHIP

BANNING BOOKS: AN EGREGIOUS FORM OF CENSORSHIP

Libraries connect readers to information, ideas, learning, knowledge, and development. Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State, helps ensure people have unfettered access to information at hundreds of public, school, academic, and institutional libraries across Washington. This commitment is rooted in the fundamental principle that an educated and informed citizenry is critical to a free society. But in today’s increasingly polarized political climate, an alarming trend to ban books from schools and community libraries…

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THE WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION: A FAMILY’S LEGACY

THE WASHINGTON STATE CONSTITUTION: A FAMILY’S LEGACY

On March 2, 2022, Frank Porter Hungate, the 103-year-old grandson of 1889 Constitutional Convention delegate James Allen Hungate, visited Washington State Archives’ headquarters in Olympia to view the original 1889 Washington State Constitution. The original State Constitution is kept in a secure vault and — save for exclusive viewings and ceremonies (such as an anniversary of statehood or Constitution Days) — is not available for public viewing. Yet the opportunity for Frank to see his grandfather’s signature and further his…

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