Julie Anderson (Washington)
Julie Anderson (independent) ran in a special election for Washington Secretary of State. She lost in the special general election on November 8, 2022.
Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Julie Anderson earned a bachelor's degree from The Evergreen State College in 1987 and a graduate degree from Northeastern University in 1990. Her career experience includes working as a senior policy advisor for the Department of Commerce, an executive director for YWCA of Tacoma-Pierce County and Episcopal Services for Youth, and assistant regional administrator for the Department of Social and Health Services.
Anderson has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Rotary International
- Center for Leadership and Social Responsibility, UW Tacoma
- Sound Outreach
- American Leadership Forum, Tacoma-Pierce County Chapter
- Washington State Bar Association
- Washington State Office of Secretary of State
- Palmer Scholars
- Tacoma Community House
- Tacoma Community College
- The Evergreen State College
Elections
2022
See also: Washington Secretary of State election, 2022
General election
Special general election for Washington Secretary of State
Incumbent Steve Hobbs defeated Julie Anderson and Brad Klippert in the special general election for Washington Secretary of State on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Steve Hobbs (D) | 49.8 | 1,468,521 |
 | Julie Anderson (Independent)  | 45.8 | 1,351,926 | |
 | Brad Klippert (R) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 4.4 | 129,933 | ||
| Total votes: 2,950,380 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Special nonpartisan primary for Washington Secretary of State
The following candidates ran in the special primary for Washington Secretary of State on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Steve Hobbs (D) | 39.9 | 747,993 |
| ✔ | | Julie Anderson (Independent) | 12.8 | 240,035 |
 | Keith Wagoner (R) | 12.2 | 227,842 | |
 | Bob Hagglund (R) | 12.0 | 225,633 | |
 | Mark Miloscia (R) | 10.0 | 187,774 | |
 | Marquez Tiggs (D) | 7.9 | 148,716 | |
 | Tamborine Borrelli (America First Republican Party) | 4.6 | 86,748 | |
 | Kurtis Engle (Union Party) | 0.4 | 6,887 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 1,499 | ||
| Total votes: 1,873,127 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Anderson's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Julie Anderson completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Anderson's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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As a long serving elections official in the race for Secretary of State, Julie Anderson is the most trusted candidate for administering elections in a fair transparent way. Pierce county’s residents have seen her administer elections, licensing services and steward document recording for more than a decade. She is the only certified election administrator in the race to oversee statewide elections and has administered hundreds of accurate, transparent elections for public officials of both parties. Julie’s trusted lifelong commitment to her community is based on doing the right thing, not on the political thing.
As our state and country polarize around divisive partisan fights, there is no other candidate with the trusted reputation and proved experience of working with the entire political spectrum as an elected nonpartisan leader than Julie Anderson. Julie has the years of public experience that other candidates lack, and none of the partisan baggage that triggers automatic skepticism from one side or the other.
- Remove partisanship from election administration
- Improve election security and transparency
- Increase access to elections
Julie Anderson knows that we have a trustworthy democracy when every voter feels welcomed, knows how to participate and can do so easily, and believes that the system is fair and secure. As Secretary of State, Julie will remove partisanship from election administration, improve election security and transparency, and increase access to elections.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Anderson’s campaign website stated the following:
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Julie Anderson will ensure our vote-by-mail elections continue to be the best in the nation. She knows that we have a trustworthy democracy when every voter feels welcomed, knows how to participate and can do so easily, and believes that the system is fair and secure.
To trust election results, we must trust the people administering them and we should shield them from partisan influence. We also need to involve more citizens – who aren’t partisans – in the oversight of elections. As Secretary of State, I will: *Champion legislation to designate the Secretary of State as a nonpartisan office.
As your Secretary of State, I will petition the Legislature to adopt a change in state law to designate the Secretary of State position – by law – as nonpartisan. A partisan Secretary of State is neither compatible with the duties of the office, nor with oversight of fair elections. The public – and the respective political parties – must trust the process. Passionate, devoted, and often well-meaning Democrats and Republicans will not trust the intentions of a Secretary of State that doesn’t belong to their respective party. Eliminating perceptions that are implicit with belonging to a political party will help to restore and increase public trust in the outcomes of elections. Nothing is more important to the democratic process and our country.
According to a report from Election Reformers Network and the Bipartisan Policy Center, at least 60% of America’s local election officials – like Washington’s County Auditors – enter office with ties to a political party. And, extreme partisans are mobilizing to control as many of these positions as possible. Your local elected County Auditor is responsible for managing elections within your county. They do the hard work of ensuring you receive your ballot and vote is counted and that security controls are in place. Just like the Secretary of State, this is a critically important job and voters should be able to change their Auditor more easily from a partisan office to a nonpartisan office. At this time, six of Washington’s 39 county auditors / director of elections run as nonpartisans because their county charters designate the offices as nonpartisan. The legislature should pass a law to allow for a local option to make even more election officials run as nonpartisan candidates.
Political parties aren’t the only ones who care are about elections. That’s why as Pierce County Auditor, I created room for independent election observers in addition to political party observers. Political party observers have a narrow focus and a partisan agenda. Washington needs more citizen observation with broader, public interests. As Secretary of State, I will develop an election observation program staffed by nonpartisan volunteers who have subject matter expertise in technology, law, accounting, database management, and statistics, and who are trained and coordinated by the Secretary of State. The development and evaluation of the nonpartisan observer corps program would be overseen by a bipartisan and nonpartisan advisory board. The nonpartisan observer corps would observe election operations and review voter registration records. To incentivize election observation, continuing education and certification credits can be provided for attorneys, accountants, and IT professionals. Likewise, academic credit could be given in apprenticeship programs and college courses.
The Secretary of State being a designated nonpartisan office will not be enough to build public trust if they still support candidates or promote a political party. As Secretary of State, I will further separate election officials from party influence by promoting a Code of Conduct that would limit the Secretary of State’s political involvement with campaigns and political parties. Allow independent voters to participate in the publicly financed Presidential Preference Primary. Every four years, voters get to express their preferences to the Republican and Democratic parties about who should be the presidential nominees of each party. The Democratic and Republican parties are private organizations that maintain control over their nomination processes. The state can’t force them to abide by the results of the primary, the parties get to create their own oaths, etc. State law requires voters to declare a party preference to vote, and information regarding a voter’s party preference is public. The Presidential Preference Primary is funded by the state’s general fund and costs between $11 million to $14 million. I oppose using public funds to conduct the business of private organizations when the activity explicitly prohibits the participation of unaffiliated voters. I respect the constitutionally protected “right of association” of the political parties. They should absolutely be able to manage their affairs and their membership as they see fit. But not on the public dime, when 30-40% of the public is denied access.I support legislation that will:
To have a trustworthy democracy, voters need to believe the system is fair and secure. I have over 12 years of experience securing our elections as Pierce County’s auditor. As Secretary of State, I will: *Enhance election security.
Improve election security and transparency
As the only state and nationally certified election administrator in the race and as Pierce County Auditor, I’m the only candidate with hands-on experience managing election security. I know what must be done as Secretary of State to enhance election security. As Pierce County Auditor, I completed a Department of Homeland Security Infrastructure Security and Resilience Assessment in 2019, as well as an External Dependencies Assessment in 2021. Our office is also an active member of EI-ISAC (Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing Analysis Center). My hands-on experience is critical to providing the support our 39 counties need. As Secretary of State, I will: *Conduct risk limiting audits for state measures or races.
Long before it was required by law, Pierce County voluntarily conducted random post-election audits for every election. The audits are open public meetings which have an active role for both political parties. Today, all counties conduct random post-election audits. These audits compare batches of paper ballots with machine results. Random batch audits are very good. However, Washington should add a risk limiting audit of a randomly selected statewide race and draw statistically valid samples in each county. The sample of randomly selected ballots would be sufficient to determine if an election outcome could be changed by a scanning error or tampering. Design standards and identify sources for independent air gap testing Currently, each county is expected to take steps to ensure that its tabulation equipment is not and cannot be connected to the internet. However, there is no verification that this is happening, and no standardized methods are in use. As Secretary of State, I will establish strong methodology for air gap verification, regularize this process, and ensure that election observers are involved. Expand penetration testing and ensure that testing consistently occurs Penetration testing simulates a cyberattack on computer systems. The simulation helps discover opportunities for exploitation and test IT security. Currently, the Department of Homeland Security provides free penetration testing for county election systems. However, the waiting list is two years long, and few counties have taken advantage of the service. As Secretary of State, I will work with county governments, as well as industry and academics to create a resource list of authorized independent vendors qualified to conduct penetration testing and ensure that every county receives this important security process testing. Develop procedures and adopt rules for hash checks on election software A cryptographic hash is a digital fingerprint originated by a mathematical function in a computer program. Even the smallest change to the computer program will change the hash value. The hash value is, therefore, a unique fingerprint for any program. Currently, only two or three counties conduct hash checks as part of their required Logic & Accuracy Testing. And, there are no published procedures for how to conduct and document a hash check. As Secretary, I will create procedures for hash checks and ensure that each county conducts a public hash check prior to each election and again before any election is certified. Promote election transparency Free and fair elections are foundational to our country, and as Pierce County’s chief elections administrator—County Auditor—I take that very seriously. In my 12 years managing elections in Washington’s second largest county, I have worked hard to increase trust in our elections. As Secretary of State, I will: *Create a Nonpartisan Election Observer Corps.
Create a Nonpartisan Election Observer Corps Political parties aren’t the only ones who care about elections. That’s why as Pierce County Auditor, I created room for independent election observers in addition to political party observers. Political party observers have a narrow focus and a partisan agenda. Washington needs more citizen observation with broader, public interests. As Secretary of State, I will develop an election observation program staffed by nonpartisan volunteers who have subject matter expertise in technology, law, accounting, database management, and statistics, and who are trained and coordinated by the Secretary of State. The development and evaluation of the nonpartisan observer corps program would be overseen by a bipartisan and nonpartisan advisory board. The nonpartisan observer corps would observe election operations and review voter registration records. To incentivize election observation, continuing education and certification credits can be provided for attorneys, accountants, and IT professionals. Likewise, academic credit could be given in apprenticeship programs and college courses. Create a public review of anonymized, voted ballots In the past, Washington’s counties used “optical” tabulation equipment that read marks on a paper ballot via a laser scan. Today, all counties use equipment which creates a digital image of a paper ballot and records the marks. This digital equipment is far more accurate and creates superior audit documentation should a ballot need to be resolved due to a voter error or question of voter intent. Election officials receive many requests from election skeptics wanting to view voted ballots and see documentation of how ballots are resolved. With today’s technology, it is possible to make ballots (but not the voter’s identity) and the adjudication process viewable. Maryland and Utah allow this. However, the Secretary of State of Washington holds the position that ballot images and cast vote records may not be revealed to the public. As Secretary of State, I will convene election officials, security experts, and technologists to explore how we can make our elections more transparent without compromising voter privacy or election security. Ensure that every county is resilient and ready for emergencies. Disaster preparedness, vulnerability assessments, and continuity of operations. Every county needs to be prepared for many challenges—from mundane events like a ballot supplier running out of paper or a road project cutting internet to the building – to the extreme scenarios like a terrorist attack or major earthquake. As Secretary of State, I will initiate simplified – but regular – exercises and drills to help counties anticipate these incidents and be prepared to deliver essential services under any condition. 'Combat false information and make trusted sources easy to identify Misinformation is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm. Disinformationis deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, social group, organization, or country by foreign adversaries and domestic terrorists to sow division and undermine democracy. In the United States, federal security and law enforcement agencies are fully engaged in monitoring, detection, and investigation of disinformation. To lessen the impact of misinformation and disinformation, as Secretary of State I will: *Lead efforts to improve civic education.
As Secretary, to combat misinformation. I will: *Develop education materials that better-explain Washington’s elections process and the steps taken to ensure accurate, fair outcomes.
Each county has unique needs and disparate resources but must respond to similar information challenges. I will ensure each county has the resources they need to act when needed.
Increase access to democracy My mission is to see every eligible voter prepared and primed to vote in every election, from local School Board to President of the United States. While Washington’s elections serve most voters extremely well, I remain concerned about citizens on the sidelines. As Secretary of State, I will continuously pursue ways to bring more people to participate. I will: *Create innovative, community-tailored voter engagement programs.
Launch VOICE (Voter Outreach & Innovative Civic Engagement) funding to bring community together in the public interest. VOICE will be a grant program that stimulates innovative voter engagement designed by communities, tailored for local conditions, and based on evidence-based best practices. Administered by the Office of the Secretary of State, VOICE grants bring together county auditors, community leaders, and nonprofit impact advisors. State funds – combined with philanthropic contributions – will be pooled and allocated statewide to ensure transparent, nonpartisan, and equitable funding. VOICE will leverage the Secretary of State’s Charities Council – already filled with a dozen subject matter experts from around the state – to establish guidelines for the grant program, draw in philanthropists as well as nonprofit participants, and publish VOICE impact reports Make voting information more readily available through partnerships with employers I want to partner with employers to voluntarily provide their employees with information to empower them to vote. Many employers have employee newsletters, education opportunities, and engagement programs. By connecting them with easy, accurate, nonpartisan information we can bring more voters into the elections process. As Secretary of State, I will: *Partner with employers to provide access to nonpartisan civic education.
Expand in-person voter services With the technology and laws already in place, libraries or other public service offices can deliver voting services at places citizens already know and trust. As Pierce County Auditor, I contract with three library districts to provide first of its kind Points of Assistance centers by transforming 27 library branches into election center extensions on Election Day. Since its launch in August 2019, Pierce County elections has served 1,392 voters at public libraries, saving each voter an average of 14 miles by providing this alternative to driving into the Election Center. Same Day Registration and ballot replacements are provided, in addition to convenient election-day only temporary ballot drop boxes. As Secretary of State, I will: *Work with library districts, the state legislature, and county auditors to scale up in-person voter assistance with efficiency and transparency. At full capacity, Washington State could have voter services in as many as 300 public library branches, if libraries and counties are properly supported by an experienced Secretary of State. Increase language access As Pierce County’s Auditor, I’ve implemented language translation and interpretation for Spanish, Vietnamese, and Korean residents, without being forced to do so by the federal Department of Justice. We translate our local voter’s pamphlet, registration forms, and ballots for qualified citizens. We also provide on-demand video interpretation at our customer service counters to answer questions for customers who don’t speak English proficiently and need a little extra help. It’s crucial for people to understand legal documents and the oaths that they are signing. As Secretary of State, I will:
Assist differently abled voters Even in a vote-by-mail system, people with disabilities must overcome significant challenges if they wish to vote privately and independently. Because voters are differently abled, their needs are unique and varying. These variations mean that election accessibility is sometimes dismissed as a logistical and fiscal impossibility. As Secretary of State, I will work to reduce barriers and ensure differently abled voters have greater access and more encouragement. I’ll collaborate with the disability community, security experts, technologists, and election administrators to find ways to:
Across the state, a consistent level of service, security, and accuracy must be maintained. And yet, financial resources and community profiles vary greatly between counties. The Secretary of State must develop support strategies that promote uniformity while honoring local characteristics, communities, and leadership. As the former president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, I’m passionate about supporting counties to help them deliver top-notch voter services and the highest election security, with sensitivity to the unique conditions on the ground. I know first-hand what it takes to manage elections. I also understand the impact to county auditors when the Office of the Secretary of State isn’t performing at 100%. Poor communication, lack of coordination, or just simply failing to hear and understand county challenges can have a devastating effect. As Secretary of State, I will:
Most Americans say that they are dissatisfied with the way that our democracy is working and want to see significant changes in politics. Even among Americans who think that democracy is working well, 85% want to see significant political reform. We need a Secretary of State with the experience and know-how to responsibly guide and implement the electoral reforms that Washingtonians want. Though Washington’s Top 2 Primary system is model for the nation, it isn’t strong enough on its own to counteract today’s extreme polarization. And, though our state’s voter participation is significantly better than most other states, we still need to boost turnout. For these reasons, Washington State residents press for change. Whether it’s consolidated elections, multi-member districts, new primary dates, new remote or in-person voting options, approval voting, or the adoption of ranked-choice voting, my experience managing elections prepares me to lead our counties and state through change. As Secretary of State, I will:
The Secretary of State must provide leadership to ensure smooth implementation of any adopted electoral reform – providing absolute confidence and maximum voter participation. Ranked-choice voting has significant momentum across the United States and here in Washington state. That’s why I support legislation to allow local jurisdictions to begin using ranked-choice voting in their districts. This local choice option would allow incremental change, which is part of America’s culture. Incrementalism has stimulated election reforms such as women’s voting rights and Washington’s vote-by-mail system. Read more about ranked-choice voting and why I support the legislation.
The question for the next Secretary of State is how to honor local choice and incremental reform while ensuring statewide uniformity and supporting local election officials. Ignoring or undermining proposed legislation will only incite chartered counties and first-class cities to adopt their own versions of electoral reforms or push frustrated advocates to pass poorly crafted laws by initiative. Without statewide leadership and a vision for how reforms should be operationalized, Washington could end up with a weakly designed patchwork of elections that require different types of software and vastly different procedures. Voters, in turn, will be confused. The Secretary of State should not delay these discussions while awaiting the outcome of legislative proposals. I will pursue a standard, sensible framework for how to implement the electoral reforms that Washingtonians want. I am the only candidate with the election administration experience necessary to provide that leadership. Work with local election officials to identify and overcome obstacles. No matter what reforms are proposed, there will be operational obstacles to overcome. As Secretary of State, I will work with local election officials to quantify and address resource concerns such as time, money, and staffing. And with ranked-choice voting, I’ll work with counties to assess the technology challenges of running ranked-choice voting on existing election equipment, as well as the logistical challenges of running two types of elections at the same time. Read more about ranked-choice voting and the work ahead of us.[2] |
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| —Julie Anderson ’s campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Washington Secretary of State |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 4, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Julie Anderson ’s campaign website, “Issues,” accessed October 31, 2022
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