Jay Inslee said Thursday he wants to make it a crime to spread lies about election results. Inslee said he’s drafting a bill to make it a gross misdemeanor for elected officials and candidates to hurl unsubstantiated claims that sow doubt in the integrity of elections. Perpetuating the belief that the election was stolen is like “yelling fire in a crowded theater of democracy,” he said. Inslee cited three Republican state lawmakers who used taxpayer dollars to attend a symposium on election fraud last summer that trafficked in unproven conspiracy theories. Threatening to jail people for political speech is as dangerous to our democracy as questioning election results,” he wrote.

Source: The Herald January 07, 2022 08:02 UTC