SEATTLE — This Sunday, worshipers in conservative congregations across Washington may see something new in their churches – a ballot collection box.
“We are ballot harvesting,” Washington GOP Chair Rep. Jim Walsh said plainly in a recent interview. “We are helping, encouraging and collecting and delivering, if need be, ballots of voters.”
In additional to churches, Walsh said Republicans placed ballot boxes “…at some gun shops (and) places where conservative people often gather.”
The party is hosting “Bring Your Ballot to Church Day” across Washington this Sunday, Oct. 27 in conjunction with the Family Policy Institute of Washington.
“Did you know that if Christians simply voted, we would win every election with conservative candidates?” Pastor Brian Noble asked on the FPIW’s website.
Ballot harvesting is not a new tactic in Washington, but it’s the first time there has been a widely organized effort by Republicans.
“Because we want to win and we think that increasing voter turnout will help us win,” Walsh said.
That’s a sharp about-face from the aftermath of the 2020 election, when Republicans said “ballot harvesting” was part of the Democrat’s plot to “steal” the presidential election from Donald Trump. Conspiracy theories and documentaries like the debunked “2000 Mules” claimed, in part, that Democrats stuffed ballot boxes with illegal votes.
Ballot harvesting, in which a person or organization collects completed ballots from voters and then drops them off at a ballot box or elections office, is legal in Washington.
“If you’re comfortable giving your ballot to someone and they will turn it in for you, then there’s no problem with that,” said Skagit County Elections Manager Gabrielle Clay.
The key is that the ballot must be filled out and signed by the registered voter.
Democrats have long used some form of ballot collecting to get out the vote.
First AME in Seattle, the first Black church in Washington state, is holding a “Bring You Ballot to Church Day” on Sunday, Nov. 3, three days before the election.
“It’s a tradition, if you will,” said First AME Pastor Rev. Dr. Carey G. Anderson. “We've been doing this from the time of our inception of being able to vote, and so this has always been a part of our history, a part of our culture, and it's a part of our spiritual DNA.”
Instead of a collection box, First AME worshipers will file out of the church on 14th Avenue on Seattle’s Capitol Hill and make the half-mile march to the nearest ballot box at Seattle Central College.
Pastor Anderson said the goal of the march is for other members of the public to see their activism on public display.
“We’re mobilizing and making a visible statement about the importance of our voice through the voting process,’ he said.
Pastor Noble, who is CEO and president of FPIW, pointed to Westgate Chapel in Edmonds as one of the churches that will have a ballot collection box at its services this Sunday.
A Westgate Chapel spokesperson said the church would “pass on this opportunity” when asked for an interview by KING 5.
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