(The Center Square) – The Yakima County Republican Party is calling for a statewide investigation into an activist organization that hosted a ballot-related raffle during the 2025 general election in Sunnyside.
According to social media posts sent to The Center Square by the Yakima County Republican Party, an organization called We Are Ella held an event related to ballot printing, ballot submission, and voter registration, featuring a raffle for a television and other high-value prizes.
The goal was to encourage voters to show up and turn in their ballots, or register to vote on site, for the Nov. 4 general election.
Yakima County Republican Party Chair Matt Brown spoke with The Center Square on Wednesday about their concerns.
“We had some voters in Sunnyside reach out to the party who were very concerned as they were seeing this event advertised locally,” he said. “And so they started kind of doing their own little investigation and sent us the videos and sent us the social media posts. And they went down there and saw folks were printing and voting their ballots and doing the things that they said they were in the video. Obviously, this is illegal, doing it this way.”
He explained that upon alerting the local auditor’s office, the response indicated there was potentially a reason for concern.
Brown added, “The auditor’s office promptly called me and was like, ‘What in the world is this stuff?’”
Ultimately, the auditor’s office submitted information to the Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which issued a written warning acknowledging that the conduct appeared concerning and close to violating state election law. No further action was taken.
“Our organization follows every election law in Washington,” Brown said. “We Are Ella violated the standards in RCW 29A.84.620 and RCW 29A.84.630, yet they walked away with a warning. If any Republican group had tied ballot activity to a prize, they would face immediate consequences. Equal enforcement must apply to everyone, not just to those the state finds politically convenient.”
Brown told The Center Square he has also asked the Washington Attorney General’s Office to investigate and has reached out to the Secretary of State’s Office, as We Are Ella receives taxpayer-funded grant money.
“I would imagine that money is being used currently to buy those said prizes that they’re using to bribe voters,” Brown said.
The Yakima County Republican Party is calling for the following action:
A full investigation into We Are Ella’s election-related activities.A determination on whether the raffle constituted illegal inducement under RCW 29A.84.620 or RCW 29A.84.630.Clear statewide rules prohibiting giveaways of monetary value connected to ballot activity.Enforcement standards that apply to all organizations equally and without political favoritism.
Brown said the main obstacle now is determining how to proceed with their complaint, given that local authorities are deferring to the state.
“The hard part in Washington state elections is there’s not really a formal way for anyone to really push this issue. I mean, we went through the auditor, and we went to the prosecutor, and he was trying to figure out what to do. I’ve sent this same information to the Attorney General’s Office, and I don’t know if we’ll ever get a comment back from them.”
The Center Square reached out to the Yakima County Prosecutor’s Office and We Are Ella for comment on this story, but did not receive a response.
Brown said less than 100 votes separate at least two city council races in Sunnyside and Yakima, so the integrity of the election is imperative.
This is a developing story.
The Center Square reporter Tim Clouser contributed to this story.
