| Field | Detail | Source |
|---|
| Full Name | Steve Duenkel (Steven Duenkel) | T1 |
| Residence | Mason County, Washington. Campaign material states he moved to Mason County to be closer to his parents. | T3 |
| Party | Republican | T1 |
| Employment | Retired Boeing manager/executive. Described as a 61-year-old retired Boeing executive at the time of the 2022 race. No military service or specific educational credential located in public sources. | T2 |
1 Election History
| Year | Race | Result |
|---|
| 2022 | Mason County Auditor | Won open seat, 14,515 (50.46%) to 14,234 (49.48%) over two-term Democratic incumbent Paddy McGuire, a margin of roughly 281 votes. Trailed on election night and overtook McGuire on later counts. Took office January 2023.
|
| 2026 | Mason County Auditor | Pending (incumbent; announced re-election February 2026; 4-way August primary, ballot position 2) |
2 Political Positions
| Topic | Position | Source |
|---|
| Election Administration & Integrity | Ran in 2022 on an 'election integrity' platform, questioning the 2020 election, promoting the discredited film '2000 Mules', questioning mail voting and tabulation machines, and advocating hand-counting of paper ballots. In office since 2023 he rejects the 'election denier' label and emphasizes transparency measures, citizen ballot-process observers, cameras on the county's drop boxes, and public 24/7 video streaming of ballot processing, while continuing to certify elections under existing Washington law.
| T2 |
3 Campaign Finance (PDC T1 Data)
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|
| Filing Entity | PDC committee DUENS--500. 2026 cycle as of 2026-06-23: $19,381.98 raised across 65 contributions, $4,366.76 spent, ~$15,015 cash-on-hand, the largest war chest in the field. Roughly $4,565 is self-funded; $2,020 came as small contributions across 20 donors; top external donors Jack Johnson ($1,200) and Claudette Beyer ($1,200). Earliest receipt 2025-08-14, the earliest start in the race. Source: WA PDC SODA API (data.wa.gov), as_of 2026-06-23.
| T1 |
4 Notable Public Statements
“Let's face it, people have lost confidence in our election system. There's lots of questions about what happened in 2020.”
2022 campaign for Mason County Auditor, quoted by Northwest News Network / Seattle Times (2022-06-21)
“a term that is intended to be derogatory or demeaning”
Rejecting the 'election denier' label in a post-election KING5 interview after taking office (approximate date) (2023-01-01)
5 Vulnerability Assessment
2 sourced findings. All sourced at T1 (Official Record) or T2 (Multi-Source Media) per clearthemud provenance model. No T3/T4 claims included.
Finding 5.1: Authored a 2022 "Voter Anomaly" report later shown to be roughly 80% inaccurate HIGH
- What happened
- As a 2022 candidate, before taking office, Duenkel authored a "Voter Anomaly" report through the Mason County Voter Research Project, a door-to-door canvassing effort associated with conservative activist Glen Morgan. The report alleged 239 voter-registration anomalies and demanded the county investigate for fraud. A KING5 investigation, carried also by KREM/TEGNA, found that more than 80% of the claimed anomalies were either incorrect or already known to elections staff; it narrowed the list to about 67 possible (not confirmed) anomalies out of roughly 44,500 registered voters, and found not a single example of voter fraud. One flagged cluster ("Coulter Creek") simply reflected volunteers missing that the homes sat on Coulter Creek Road South. The report's subject, the accuracy of the voter rolls, is the core function of the office Duenkel now holds.
- Source tier
- T2
- Political impact
- High
- Defense
- The report was produced when Duenkel was a private-citizen candidate, not in his official capacity, and flagging suspected registration anomalies for review is in principle a legitimate civic activity, county elections offices routinely receive and check such referrals. Duenkel frames his goal as restoring public confidence rather than proving mass fraud, and rejects the "election denier" label.
- https://www.king5.com/article/news/investigations/investigation-voter-fraud-claims-mason-county-western-washington/281-71c92dfb-722e-43b6-ae50-0a37c8b1ea77
- https://www.krem.com/article/news/investigations/investigation-voter-fraud-claims-mason-county-western-washington/281-71c92dfb-722e-43b6-ae50-0a37c8b1ea77
- https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/2022-06-21/vote-fraud-conspiracy-theories-driving-some-candidates-for-elections-offices-in-wa-elsewhere
Finding 5.2: Campaigned on debunked election-fraud claims for the office that runs elections MODERATE
- What happened
- During his 2022 campaign for the office that administers Mason County's elections, Duenkel publicly questioned the 2020 election, promoted the discredited film "2000 Mules," questioned mail voting and tabulation machines, and advocated setting the machines aside in favor of hand-counting paper ballots. The two-term Democratic incumbent he defeated, Paddy McGuire, called the underlying theories "junk science," and election experts quoted in statewide coverage described rigged-algorithm claims as debunked.
- Source tier
- T2
- Political impact
- Moderate
- Defense
- These are dated 2022 campaign statements, not current administrative conduct. In office since 2023, Duenkel has emphasized transparency mechanisms, citizen observers, drop-box cameras, and public video streaming of ballot processing, rather than refusing to run machine-counted elections, and has continued to certify elections under existing Washington law. Old campaign rhetoric does not by itself establish how he has administered the office.
- https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/2022-06-21/vote-fraud-conspiracy-theories-driving-some-candidates-for-elections-offices-in-wa-elsewhere
- https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/vote-fraud-conspiracy-theories-driving-some-candidates-for-elections-offices-in-wa-elsewhere/
- https://www.king5.com/article/news/politics/elections/candidate-questioned-election-security-mason-county-auditor/281-e5b4d855-b5b8-4b42-aa1e-d74a2102353d
6 Source Verification
- Data Sources
- WA SOS, WA PDC, local media, public records
- Collection Date
- 2026-07-04
- Highest Tier
- T1 (Official Record)
- Methodology
- OSINT deep-dive using exclusively public-record sources. All findings at T1 or T2. No T3/T4 claims included.