Voter registration hearing for Thurston candidate C Davis covered more than his address
Editor’s note: A sentence was corrected to indicate that C Davis called the non-traditional address registration process “hinky,” not the voter registration challenge process.
A heated voter registration challenge hearing Thursday was about more than where C Davis, Republican candidate for Thurston County Commission in District 1, registered to vote.
It included tense back-and-forth, a little bit of name-calling, and accusations that Davis is taking advantage of a system meant to serve homeless voters and tribal communities.
Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall, who presided over Thursday’s hearing, said to expect a written decision within 14 days. She told The Olympian she could not comment on this case because it is ongoing.
“I’m not taking this lightly — these are serious allegations,” Hall said. “I have a lot of information to decipher and I will be making a decision as soon as I can.”
What could happen next is somewhat convoluted, but Mason County Auditor Paddy McGuire — a self-identified “elections nerd” — tuned into the hearing and shed some light on possible outcomes in an interview with The Olympian Friday.
Davis likely can’t be disqualified as a candidate and removed from November ballots as a result of a finding against him. But that doesn’t mean this hearing won’t have an impact on the race, which has proven itself the most turbulent local contest this election season.
What happened at the hearing
Thursday’s hearing was spurred by Andrew Saturn, a former candidate for local public office, who identifies as Socialist. Saturn alleged in a voter registration challenge that Davis doesn’t live at the office building where he’s registered, on the 1200 block of Fourth Avenue East.
Auditor’s Office staff presented evidence at the hearing, then Saturn and Davis each had 15 minutes to present their arguments, in that order, and Saturn had an additional 10 minutes to respond.
It was quickly revealed Thursday that Davis was registered there in 2018 as a “non-traditional address,” after he provided the Auditor’s Office a nearby cross-street.
According to the Washington Secretary of State, a person’s voter registration has to be based on the location where they reside, but traditional residential addresses aren’t required to register. A voter without a traditional residence is registered and assigned to a precinct “based on the location provided,” a Secretary of State clearinghouse notice reads.
“The address is anywhere the voter currently considers his or her residence,” it reads. It can be where they spend most of their time, where they sleep, or a description such as a bridge or park.
In C Davis’s case, a voter registration form shows the Auditor’s Office used the cross streets of Fourth Avenue East and Puget Street Northeast.
In an interview with The Olympian, Mason County Auditor McGuire explained that non-traditional addresses are “an important tool for people who are experiencing homelessness,” or are otherwise displaced, to vote. Kathy Sakahara, democracy issue advocate for the League of Women Voters of Washington, added that they’re also used in tribal communities and were part of the Native American Voting Rights Act.
Saturn alleged at the hearing that Davis is taking advantage of that system.
He argued that Davis actually lives on the 1200 block of Bigelow Avenue Northeast, based on: police response, court, and other types of records; often seeing Davis’s vehicle at the address; and talking to former tenants who lived there.
Thurston County Assessor’s records show Davis owns the property at the Bigelow address. In 2007, the records show “C Davis” bought the property from “Celeste Davis.” The property is a third of a mile north of where he registered.
Saturn also called a witness: Arthur Mills, who owns the Lacey-based private investigations company Cicero Intel.
Mills testified that he was contacted by “a concerned citizen,” clarifying it wasn’t Andrew Saturn, and is working on an investigation into Davis. A background check yielded “24 aliases and impostors,” Mills said, explaining that an alias is essentially a nickname, while an impostor shares a Social Security number with someone else.
All the identities pointed to the Bigelow Avenue address, Mills said.
Cicero Intel also is the company Jon Pettit said he paid, through an unknown third party, to create the report on Davis’s opponent, Carolina Mejia. Pettit is challenging Mejia’s citizenship and eligibility to run for office.
Davis’s piece of the hearing was charged from the start.
While taking his oath to tell the whole truth, he appeared not to confirm he’d tell the truth and simply stated his name. He had to re-do his oath after observers, including Lacey City Council member Michael Steadman, who’s running as a Democrat for the County Commission in District 2, pointed it out in the chat.
“I affirm that I will tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God,” Davis said. “That’s with a capital G, by the way, just to clarify... Judeo-Christian God,” Davis said.
He said that in 2018, when he registered to vote at the non-traditional address, he had gone to the Auditor’s Office because he hadn’t been getting his ballot at his private mailbox. Staff asked where he wanted to change his address to, and he didn’t know. They asked him to give cross-streets, he said.
He called the non-traditional address registration process “hinky,” and threatened legal action against Saturn, who he at least twice referred to as “Mr. Pluto.”
Auditor Hall asked Davis where he resides at least five times, saying her office needed to know in order to assign him to the correct precinct and which candidates to put on his ballot.
Repeatedly, Davis answered with some version of “it depends,” and called the Bigelow address an “investment property.’
“It depends on the time,” Davis said. “When I came in in 2018, I was staying with a friend. But I do own a rental unit. It’s a duplex, and I use part of it for storage. Sometimes I stay there, sometimes I don’t.”
After much back-and-forth, Davis said there’s “nothing inaccurate” about the cross streets he provided in 2018.
“You’re implying that some people are entitled to a non-traditional address and other people aren’t,” Davis said.
Hall asked if that’s the precinct he should be placed in, and he ultimately said yes.
Davis’s involvement in the hearing ended as tensely as it started.
In his response, Saturn referenced court records from 2009. A prosecutor’s statement of probable cause in that case includes that Davis, who in the court record is “C Shelley Frank Davis,” allegedly lied to officers multiple times.
Davis interrupted Saturn and said “That was a bold-faced lie” before Hall said it wasn’t his time to speak and requested someone mute him.
What could happen next
Mason County Auditor McGuire told The Olympian he tuned into the hearing because informal allegations were raised in a Shelton City Council race last year, and he wanted to see how a hearing like this is conducted.
The challenge is to Davis’s voter registration, not to his candidacy, McGuire clarified. In his understanding, if Auditor Hall determines Davis’s registration is incorrect, Davis could simply re-register immediately.
According to Thurston County GeoData, the Bigelow address is still within District 1, where he’s running. But candidates for public office must be registered voters, according to state law. But even if he decided not to re-register, it seems he would still be on ballots.
Auditor Hall has told The Olympian that she doesn’t have the authority to remove candidates from the ballot. State law requires challenging the validity of their candidacy in court — the process Jon Pettit is pursuing against Mejia. That requires filing an affidavit within three days of the certification of the primary election, which has passed.
Unless somebody filed a court challenge that was not mentioned at Thursday’s hearing, it would appear it’s too late for that in this situation. Short of a court order, McGuire said, he’d put the candidate on the ballot.
“The statute related to disqualifying candidates is archaic, confusing, and ripe for updating,” McGuire later said of the state law.
The question of whether his registration is fraudulent, McGuire said, is a separate question. According to state law, knowingly falsifying voter registration information is a felony.
“If this was happening in Mason County, and I found that a voter had knowingly registered to vote where they did not live, I would certainly take that to my prosecuting attorney and have a conversation about it,” McGuire said. “But, ultimately, it would be his decision whether to prosecute or not.”
A turbulent candidacy within a turbulent race
Saturn has said it’s not his goal to change the primary results or to assist a candidate in their bid for commissioner, but to prove there’s been a violation. At the same time, he said he thinks it’s good the hearing may impact the election in the court of public opinion.
He told The Olympian that, while voters falsifying information on their registration is rare, he’s pointing out hypocrisy if this is an example of it. This is not an undocumented person, or another stereotype, but a “very, very conservative white guy who owns multiple properties,” Saturn said.
The race for Thurston’s District 1 seat has been turbulent from the get-go, and has become increasingly so in recent days. Davis came in second in the Aug. 4 primary with just over 18 percent of votes, while Democrat Carolina Mejia won handily with over 32 percent.
Last week, Pettit, a frequent participant in public meetings and vocal supporter of third-place District 1 candidate Bud Blake and C Davis, challenged Democrat Carolina Mejia’s candidacy by calling into question her U.S. citizenship in court. She has provided naturalization papers and a passport to the Thurston County Auditor’s Office.
In addition to the allegations surrounding his voter registration, multiple women have accused Davis of inappropriate behavior that made them feel uncomfortable and anxious as teens. The Thurston County Republican Party endorsed him in the primary, but party leadership said this week the party has withdrawn its endorsement and will no longer be funding his campaign.
Davis’s campaign website states that he wants to help “return Thurston County to the way it used to be,” and his platform, via Facebook, consists of “no new courthouse,” streamlining building permits, protecting property rights, and preserving the environment by “eliminating homeless camps.”
On Twitter, Davis and his campaign often use inflammatory, extreme rhetoric, including a tweet promoting the use of lethal force against protesters in Seattle.
This story was originally published August 30, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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