Kent tells Thursday gathering that he doesn’t expect the current recount to change the outcome of the election
Leah Anaya
For Clark County Today
At a Thursday night Patriot’s United event in Washougal, Republican 3rd Congressional Candidate Joe Kent announced his intentions to run for the position once again in the next election.
“I’m running again in 2024,” said Kent, who recently challenged the results of the 2022 election that declared Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez the winner.
Even with the partial recount conducted Thursday, Kent said that he doesn’t expect the results to make much of a difference, regardless of the outcome.
“The election has already been certified,” he said, adding that he will not concede until he has “reached the limit of all we can do.” However, he added that he would have conceded weeks ago “had we received the results in a timely manner … but that’s not what happened.”
In the last results released on Nov. 29, Kent trailed Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez by 2,629 votes. The margin between the two candidates was less than 1 percent. Perez had 160,314 votes (50.14 percent). Kent had 157,685 (49.31 percent).
Kent said that each county runs their recounts separately and mentioned that Clark County’s likely would be completed today (Dec. 16). In Clark County alone, he said, 7,000 ballots were rejected due to failing to pass signature verification, and 9,000 in all of the 3rd Congressional District.
“A lot of game day ballots were rejected,” Kent said, speaking of ballots turned in on Election Day, rather than being submitted throughout the three-week voting window. He also said that his team was able to get about 1,250 ballots turned in through their curing process that hadn’t originally been counted. A ballot is considered “cured” when a voter confirms their signature that was first rejected via letter to the Election’s Office. This means that 1,250 voters that Kent’s team was able to contact turned in their signature verification form to be tabulated as a part of the official count. This also means that those votes were not a part of the original count, and wouldn’t have been if no one had assisted with the verification process.
“That’s voter disenfranchisement,” stated Kent, who claimed during his Thursday comments that there is a potential for a legal fight against the outcome of the election and said he was looking into that option, but he mostly remained focused on the future.
Kent discussed ways he believes that he can have a better outcome for the next race, which included focusing on specific groups of voters. For example, he said that Slavic voters were also disenfranchised due to the overwhelming number of ballots rejected from that group of people and other similar minority groups. This is because of the way they sign their names in their culture, which is with block print letters rather than cursive signatures like Latin and other European countries.
“There are three weeks of voting in this state,” Kent said. “We need to start on day one of the voting window to make sure we are getting ballots in front of people, and that they’re turning them in to be counted.”
Don Benton, who lost his bid for Clark County District 5 County Councilor to Sue Marshall, spoke at the same event and said that the media’s hype for the expected “red wave” purposefully hurt his race and Kent’s.
“They gave us a sense of overconfidence,” Benton said, “and a lot of people took advantage of the fact that North County is more conservative, so they didn’t put as much effort into that race as they should have.”
On the same note, much of the theme of Thursday’s event, held at the Black Pearl on the Columbia, was regarding the need to engage with voters in a more active manner, specifically the 18– to 30-year-old category.
Patriots United leader Mike Terry pointed out that there were 49,000 fewer Republican voters who showed up to the polls in 2022 compared to 2020. Even though that was a Presidential election year, which will typically see an increase in turnout, there were still 30,000 more Republican voters in 2018 over this year.
Aside from low turnout, Clark County also appears to have an issue with timely voting tabulations. “Florida has seven million voters,” Terry said, “and they manage to count them all in one night. Why can’t we?”
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I would love to see him lose for a second time. CIA paid shill.
Got Proof???
We need election reform here in Washington State. It is really crazy that it takes a couple of weeks to count all the Legal votes. Hand delivered votes should be counted within 24 hours. All votes post marked by election day should be delivered by the post office within a day or two, and counting the votes should only take another 2 days……
If we had direct elections where voters show up at the polls on election day, voter verification would be a lot simpler, timely, and more efficient. Absentee ballots (via U.S. Mail) are another option, but the voter has to request an Absentee Ballot prior to the election.
Stop
Hahahaha. You do know that in about 10 years or so you’ll be able to vote from home. Just give it up republican’ts, the GQP is out of touch with America. That is the real reason why you lose elections. Candidate like kent, walker, trump all traitors.
Please, please, please do go on about how you just don’t understand the process of elections in this state. All your complaints about timing of counts and certification are a function of state law. Don’t like it? Work to get the law changed. Until then, claiming there’s something amiss because of the timing just reveals your ignorance of the law and the process.
“If we had direct elections where voters show up at the polls on election day, voter verification would be a lot simpler, timely, and more efficient.”
Wrong. We’d have lower voter participation. We’d have long lines to vote. The process would take longer for each voter. It’s actually backwards. Mail-in voting makes it possible for more eligible voters to participate, on their own schedule, and is also more secure than in-person voting.
I do agree with you on one matter – more people vote in mail-in elections. Far more people vote who have moved away, anybody who happens to find a ballot, and dead people.
Clearly mail-in voting is NOT more secure than a real person representing himself/herself and voting directly.
In the past, when I’ve voted directly there were not long lines. I never had to wait more than 5 minutes. That happens when polling places are correctly set-up and run….. Voting machines tabulate votes as people vote and are stored in the machines – that’s efficiency….
At the very least, in person voting should be an option. It is exciting to vote in person. I do miss it.
He will never lose the Trump stain. He is probably using campaign funds to load up on the Trump NFTs. Trumps a grifter and so is everyone who tried to ride his coat tails-including Kent. Political career-over. Let’s get some real republicans.
This is code for “I’ve figured out the formula to grift in this district.”
We received the results in a manner that is exactly in line with state law and processes. He’s just making excuses. Par for the course for right-wring grifters.
It’s not voter disenfranchisement to kick out ballots that don’t have a matching signature. It’s a simple matter for voters to keep tabs on the status of their ballot and a process for them to fix one that’s been rejected.
It doesn’t matter how someone signs their name. If it matches their voter registration, then it’ll be verified. He’s just blowing smoke.
Note there’s zero accountability for aligning themselves with a toxic candidate like Trump. Then, for Benton, there’s the small issue of him suing the county and the voters not wanting him anywhere near public office as a result. For Kent, the problems go much deeper with his embrace of white supremacists, saying the 2020 election was stolen, calling J6 criminals “political prisoners”, etc., not to mention his mysterious employer that’s beyond sus.
Analysis of voter data indicates he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There’s plenty of Republicans that showed up to vote and said “heck no” to Benton and Kent.
Clark County doesn’t have a problem with timely voting tabulations. It certifies them in the window of time required by state law. If Mike Terry doesn’t like that, maybe he should work on trying to change that.
Well time will tell. For all those celebrating the “big win” for Maria, it wasn’t so “big”. She won by a very slim majority and this after Joe had to compete in a three-way brutal primary and then run against hundreds of thousands of dark money donor PACs thrown against him by Hererra supporters teamed up with liberals in the General. The original goal among the majority of Republicans was to retire Jaime Herrera Beutler who’s policies did not fit her district. Mission accomplished on that. First time candidates have a big learning curve. Second runs incorporate those tools learned. So, enjoy the two years. It might be her last. As I said, time will tell.
It won’t be if Joe runs again. JHB held the district for 12 years. Appreciate how hard it is to lose as a republican in the 3rd district.
What JHB policies didn’t fit the district? She voted with republicans all of the time. She was pushed out because she had the spine to vote to impeach Trump. The president who is now grifting his supporters into spending $99 of their hard money for NFTs. You can’t make this up.
Just to keep up on correct information, the people who bought those NFTs have already seen a 350% increase in value. Not a bad investment offered to his supporters when you get past the blinding, propaganda-driven hate and really look.
That $99 dollar grift is real money for DT. The NFT owner has now made 350% (about $250 ROI) with Monopoly money (crypto) which will drop at any moment (like FTX) and they will have to convert it back into real $ and pay capital gains on the $250. It is a GRIFT only one who made money was trump!
Sorry, we needed a fighter and we got a weak person who rolled over at the first sign of resistance. Was sad he won the primary but I threw my support behind him at that point. What a huge let down, I would not vote for him again even if I thought my vote might count after the damage the dems will now inflict on this county thanks to good old roll-over Joe.