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

After all, voting is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans.

And when democracy is on the ballot, as it is now, safe elections are vital.

Unfortunately, a campaign underway in Washington state that proponents claim will keep elections safe is far from the truth.

Initiative Measure IL26-126 fails to live up to its promise of protecting our votes.  In fact, if passed, the measure—commonly known as I-126—would disenfranchise a significant number of persons 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.  Supporters have until Jan. 2, 2026, to turn in the signatures of about 309,000 voters to qualify the initiative.

The reality is, despite the claims of I-126 proponents, noncitizens are not voting.  Numerous studies, all of them scientifically solid, prove the claims are wrong.  Case in point is the Brennan Center for Justice’s finding of only 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes in 2016—an incidence rate of 0.0001%. 

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

Protect your vote and decline to sign the petition to put it on the ballot. The League of Women Voters of Washington and a number of other pro-democracy groups oppose the initiative.  For more information about the Decline to Sign effort, click here.