Yes! All eleven petitions are statewide initiatives for all of Washington.

Right now – No we are not. We are using grassroots volunteers to collect signatures all around the state right now. This has been successfully done in the past (without using paid signature gatherers). For example with R-90 (Repeal Sex-Ed in Schools -2020), I-912 (Repeal Gas Tax – 2005), I-695 ($30 Car Tabs – the first one – 1999), and many other initiatives before paid signature gatherers became legal in Washington State in the early 1990s.

There are several reasons for this strategy. First, paid signature gatherers are absurdly expensive right now. Sometimes charging over $10 per signature. As generous as donors might be be to launch this project, it is just too expensive to use paid signature gatherers. Secondly, if you review these initiatives, most of them are popular initiatives that most people want to see implemented in Olympia, but there are no deep-pocket special interests who would fund them.

So, if we are going to be successful, we have to do this ourselves with hard work, time, and a real grassroots effort involving thousands of volunteers all over the state to pull it off.

Anyone who is a registered voter in Washington State (and for clarification for those registered multiple times in King County – you can still only sign each initiative one time) is eligible and legal to sign these initiatives.

If you recently moved to Washington State, make sure you register to vote, and you can also sign these initiatives.

The number of signatures is defined in state law and the Washington State Secretary of State publishes the specific requirements here:

https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/faq.aspx

This year, we must submit 324,516 valid signatures by December 30, 2022. However, it is wise and prudent to collect more signatures than “officially” needed because sometimes people will sign twice, purposely sign fake signatures, or people not eligible to sign will sign. It is generally recommended to collect 15-20% more signatures than what is officially required just to be safe. This is why we are targeting 400,000 signatures to be submitted to the Secretary of State’s office for each initiative by the deadline.

It isn’t easy. We know this is true. If you are out there engaged in this very significant effort to collect signatures, you know it takes time, work and a lot of volunteers to make this happen.

However, when Brian Heywood was discussing this concept with many others a few months ago, everyone realized that we might as well make it impactful in more than just one area. Go big or go home. So, originally the idea was for 10 initiatives. However, there were so many good ideas, we finally settled on 11, partly as a nod to Spinal Tap (see here if you don’t get that cultural reference):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW008FcKr3Q

Great question. Mostly, we tested out a few different methods and settled on this package option for a few basic reasons. First, we are attempting to encourage people to sign all 11, and it is just easier to have people start signing the first one and flipping a page and signing the next one, etc. In roughly 85% of the cases, people will sign all 11 if they sign the first one. Partly, this is because they are all great ideas, and partly this is just that once someone has committed to sign one, they only have to spend a few more minutes to make the complete impact of signing all 11.

 

Secondly, we know that some people will decide to not sign some of the initiatives. From an inventory control standpoint, we want to track these signature differences so that we can see which initiatives are more or less popular – and this will help us in scheduling our submission dates and it will be easier to identify which ones will need more education or promotion. From an inventory management perspective, this just makes sense and a few staples is a cost effective method of doing this.

 

Yes, before we submit the final signed sheets to the Secretary of State we will be sorting these individual sheets into their respective boxes and submitting by initiative number, but that is the last step in our inventory management process.

After the signatures for an initiative to the legislature are gathered and accepted by the Secretary of State’s office (and we have the required valid signatures needed to qualify), they will sent over to the legislature in the 2023 session starting in January.

 

When you actually dig into the details and minutia of the process, it actually takes about 30 days or 1/3 of the way into the session, for these initiatives to land on the legislative schedule where both houses can vote on them. Presuming we have a friendly legislature, which probably means a Republican majority, even if only by one vote, then it is presumably likely that both houses would vote to approve some or all of these initiatives.

 

If the legislature signs these initiatives (which can’t be changed, they can only be signed into law as is – or they go on the 2023 November ballot), then they become law without the Governor’s signature.

 

The Governor can’t veto these initiatives. They are veto proof, if the legislature of both houses approve them.

 

For more details, here is an AGO opinion which details the constitutional, historical, and legal reasoning behind why this is so:

https://www.atg.wa.gov/ago-opinions/initiative-and-referendum-legislature-referral-bill-people-approval-or-rejection