Vet Voice Foundation v. Hobbs

Docket number

102569-6

Date

March 6, 2025

Washington

Civic organizations and voters allege that Washington’s signature verification process for vote-by-mail ballots disproportionally disenfranchises minority voters, young voters, military personnel, voters with disabilities, and non-native English speakers, in violation of state constitutional voting rights protections. The plaintiffs and the state defendants are appealing their respective denials of summary judgment.

The Brennan Center submitted an amicus brief in support of neither party, arguing that the Washington Constitution provides stronger protections for voters than the federal Constitution, and that the court should use strict scrutiny — the most rigorous form of judicial review — when evaluating laws and practices that burden voting.

The Washington Supreme Court held that the signature verification process, when coupled with the state’s recently expanded process for notifying voters and providing an opportunity to cure when a signature mismatch is identified, does not facially violate the state constitution. The court declined to adopt the federal Anderson-Burdick test for laws alleged to burden the right to vote, concluding instead that if a law “imposes a heavy burden on the right, it is properly subject to strict scrutiny,” with a “lesser burden” requiring “a lesser degree of scrutiny.” Because the court found that the signature verification law survives any level of scrutiny, it “assumed without deciding” that strict scrutiny applies to the process and did not further define the contours of its scrutiny approach.