Culp Files Lawsuit Demanding Audit Of 2020 General Election

SEATTLE — When the first round of the 2020 General Election results dropped just after 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, incumbent Gov. Jay Inslee had earned such a commanding lead over challenger Loren Culp that the Associated Press called the race for Inslee within a minute. Culp went on to lose to the governor by roughly 545,000 votes, well beyond any potential margin of error.

But instead of conceding, Culp has remained on the offensive, trying to cast doubt on the integrity of Washington's electoral process, starting from election night onward. At Culp's "Victory Rally" in Tenino the very night of the election, footage from Q13 News of the event shows Culp refusing to accept the results of the vote, and citing unsubstantiated "irregularities" in the vote count.

Culp would continue to repeat and expand upon that claim in the coming weeks, adding theories about widespread voter fraud, and supposed issues with the Dominion Voting System used in Franklin County, among other claims.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a Republican like Culp, thoroughly rebuked those claims last week, in a statement responding to a conference in which Culp and attorney Stephen Pidgeon claimed that 800,000 ineligible voters cast their ballot in the Nov. 3 election:

"Gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp, and now attorney Stephen Pidgeon, have made sweeping claims about alleged voter fraud committed in the 2020 General Election without providing any substantive evidence," wrote Wyman. "If Mr. Culp, his attorney, or anyone else believes they have evidence of fraud, I urge them to report their findings to their county election officials and the Secretary of State's Office. As a member of law enforcement who purports to have evidence of felonies, Mr. Culp should be duty-bound to provide that evidence to the appropriate authorities so these cases can be investigated by county sheriffs and prosecutors, and possibly the FBI."

Related: Secretary Of State Rebukes Claims Of Election 'Anomalies'

But instead of submitting whatever evidence he may have, as Wyman suggests, Culp has instead continued his offensive.

In a move that echoes President Donald Trump's myriad lawsuits seeking to overturn the results of the presidential race, Culp has launched a suit of his own — his campaign announcing over Facebook that they had filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court demanding an audit of voting machines, paper ballots and voting results in King, Clark, Thurston, Pierce, Kitsap, and Skagit counties.

Notably, all 6 counties named in the suit heavily favored Inslee over Culp.

Secretary of State Wyman has yet to respond to news of the suit, but in her statement last week she expressed confidence that Washington's vote had been accurately reported:

“We have safeguards in place before, during, and after each election, and conduct numerous audits throughout to ensure all election functions and processes are operating properly and accurately."