Washington
A committee in the Washington state Senate is considering a proposal to increase the amount of time that initiative campaigns have to collect signatures.
Initiative promoter Tim Eyman testified Thursday that the larger window of time would aid citizen-led campaigns that may not have the financial resources to fund an army of signature collectors. He said signature collectors also have to work during challenging winter months and during a time when other political campaigns are not active.
Read More at: The Seattle Times
Three paid signature gatherers apparently committed extensive fraud while collecting support for two Washington initiatives, elections officials said Wednesday.
The Secretary of State’s Office said many of the 8,000 signatures submitted by the collectors were invalid. The problematic filings were linked to a measure that would extend the time for initiative signature collection, and another proposal that would require companies to label genetically modified food.
Both initiatives are still valid because the remaining signatures were sufficient to get the measures certified.
Read more here: The News Tribune
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Yesterday, the Washington Secretary of State’s office reported that Initiative 517 had passed the obstacle of signature validation on the 346,906 signatures submitted on petitions. The measure was certified as having 272,425 valid voter signatures after the state performed a check on a random sampling of 3% of the signatures. More than 78.5% of the signatures in the sample were verified giving the initiative a cushion of more than 30,000 valid signatures over the legal requirement.
The Washington State group, Voters Want More Choices, has set up a website to promote Initiative 517. The site, yeson517.com, carries the tagline, “I-517 puts the citizen back in the citizens’ initiative,” and features various resources, such a video of a recent TV interview and story on the measure.
The Washington Retail Association recently expressed misgivings about the protections for petitioning found in Initiative 517. Last year, the group of retailers praised the initiative process based on their strong support for I-1185, which required a vote of the people or a two-thirds legislative majority for any tax increase, but on the heels of activists turning in nearly 350,000 signatures last week to put the initiative reform measure on this November’s ballot, the WRA argues that allowing petitioners to gather signatures outside their establishments may be going too far.
One of the proponents of Washington State’s Initiative 517 and retired president of Citizen Solutions, Eddie Agazarm, drafted a letter which can serve to answer opponents to portions of I-517’s protections. It follows:
Eddie Agazarm, co-sponsor of Initiative 517 which puts the citizen back in the citizens’ initiative.
Yesterday, supporters of Initiative Measure turned in 345,000 signatures to the Secretary of State in Olympia, Washington, to put the measure on the November, 2013 ballot.
Tim Eyman, the state’s most prolific initiative proponent and leader of Voters Want More Choices, addressed the media at a news conference following the submission. Eyman was joined by Paul Jacob, president of Citizens in Charge, the initiative’s largest financial backer, and Edward Agazarm, former head of Citizens Solutions, a petition management firm.
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Thursday, January 3, 2013 sees the first ballot initiative of the New Year turned into the Washington State Secretary of State’s office.
The collected signatures for Initiative Measure No. 517 will be turned in at the Union Building in Olympia, Washington by Tim Eyman, Eddie Agazarm and Paul Jacob.
“[Petitioning is] a guaranteed First Amendment free speech right and it deserves protection,” said Eddie Agazarm of the initiative, which would also extend the time allotment for signature gathering and guarantee that issues petitioned will be voted on, provided enough signatures were gathered.
“The first power reserved by the people is the initiative.”
So promises the Washington State constitution. However, it is increasingly difficult for citizens to exercise their power to petition the government, as also provided for in the U.S. Constitution.
Initiative 517, which will turn in petition signatures next week in hopes of earning a place on the November 2013 ballot, seeks to protect the right of Washington State citizens to their initiative process.
One hundred years ago, in 1912, Washington citizens adopted the state’s initiative petition process. Tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 17) four initiative experts will discuss that process at a forum sponsored by The Foley Institute, Washington State University and the Washington Secretary of State. The event, entitled, “A Century of Citizen Initiatives in Washington: Are they still democratic?” will be held at the General Administration Auditorium on Olympia’s Capitol Campus, with a buffet lunch beginning at 11:30 am and the program lasting until 1:00 pm.
Only one measure will seek to mount a challenge to Washington’s newly signed same-sex marriage law on the November ballot, and it will be called Referendum 74, the Secretary of State’s Office said Tuesday.
State officials had originally said the measure would be named Referendum 73, but discovered another measure had already been given that designation last year.
Voters may be presented with two ballot measures seeking to overturn a recently passed measure that would legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state.
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On Wednesday, the Legislature approved a gay marriage bill with a 55-43 vote in the House. The Senate approved it last week on a 28-21 vote, and now the bill awaits a signature from Gov. Chris Gregoire. She is expected to sign the measure into law next week.
Washington state is likely to become the seventh state to legalize same-sex within the next two weeks, but opponents have already promised a ballot challenge would halt any summertime weddings.
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As supporters celebrated the Senate’s 28-21 vote passing the measure on Wednesday night, a coalition of religious groups promised to start collecting referendum signatures as soon as the measure is signed into law. The bill still has to be approved by the House, but with the tougher hurdle of the Senate already cleared, that second vote is just a formality.
Efforts to legalize marijuana for recreational use are gaining momentum in Washington state and Colorado, despite fierce opposition from the federal government and a decades-long cultural battle over America’s most commonly used illicit drug.
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Officials in Washington state on Friday said an initiative to legalize pot has enough signatures to qualify for the ballot in November. In Colorado, officials are likely this week to make a similar determination about an initiative there.
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Supporters are prepared to possibly spend millions of dollars ahead of the November ballot, when they hope a strong voter turnout, particularly among youth, for the U.S. presidential election will aid their cause.
Washington state lawmakers forged ahead Monday with a bill to require ballot initiative campaigns to identify their top five donors in their advertisements.
The bill passed out of a House committee on a party-line vote, with seven Democrats in favor and four Republicans opposed.
Supporters of the legislation note that corporate spending on ballot initiatives has increased dramatically in recent years. They point to the $22 million that Costco Wholesale Corp. spent on last November’s successful initiative campaign to replace state-run liquor stores with large-scale privately owned ones. And they say the measure would make clear for voters where the money backing voter initiatives is coming from.