The Washington Secretary of State, Kim Wyman, will be resigning from her position. Wyman, who has served since 2013, will instead be working for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). There, she will serve as the senior election security lead and act as a liaison to the other states to help manage election security. This position is especially important following the failed lawsuits and attacks on the election system led by former president Donald Trump. Although these claims of fraud from Trump and the GOP continue to be disproven, their constant reiteration has seeded distrust in the minds of some Americans. Hopefully, Wyman will be able to spread reassurance in the security and necessity of our democratic processes. After all, as a Republican herself, she may be able to appeal to the party while remaining impartial as well.
Wyman, as secretary of state, has a great deal of experience working in elections. Not only has she worked to lead our statewide election year after year, but she was successfully re-elected for a full third term last November. In addition, she did a great deal of work in 2020 to try and disprove misinformation, as well as publishing a book, “Elections 2020: Controlling Chaos: How Foreign Interference, a Global Pandemic, and Political Polarization Threaten U.S. Democracy,” about election security and the 2020 elections. While for some it may come as a loss to lose Wyman and her leadership from her current post, I hope that she’ll be able to be a positive force in the future to keep the structure of our elections safe and the people’s trust in them sound. Her resignation will go into effect starting Nov. 19. Gov. Jay Inslee will choose a temporary replacement in the coming weeks, and there will be a special election in 2022 to elect a new secretary of state.
