Sen. Jeff Wilson in Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs & Elections Committee.

OLYMPIA – A Senate committee Tuesday passed a bill cracking down on Washington’s initiative process, imposing new requirements on signature gatherers and ballot-measure campaigns that will make it difficult, if not impossible, for citizens to submit legislation directly to the ballot or the Legislature.

The Senate State Government, Tribal Affairs and Elections Committee voted along party lines to impose new conditions on the people’s right of initiative guaranteed by the state constitution. Although the constitution grants lawmakers the ability to pass legislation to facilitate initiatives and referendums, Republicans argued that Senate Bill 5382 instead hinders the people’s ability to qualify measures for the ballot and present them to the Legislature.

The measure now moves to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, the lead Republican on the State Government and committee, vowed that his party will fight every step of the way.

“This is one of the biggest issues for us this year,” he said. “If the people knew what their Legislature is trying to do to them, I think they would be appalled. The state constitution says the initiative is the first power reserved by the people. Unfortunately, my colleagues are taking it away from them.

“You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand why this is happening. Last year the people collected 3.2 million signatures to qualify seven initiatives, four of which became law. This was the only way the people could challenge the so-called ‘progressive agenda’ that is driving up the cost of living in Washington state and giving government greater control over our daily lives. So this is the way our colleagues have decided to solve this problem. They have decided to make it harder for the people to speak.”

Senate Bill 5382 imposes steep new hurdles on Washington’s initiative process. Among other things, it:

• Could lead state officials to throw out entire petition sheets filled with valid signatures if canvassers fail to sign their own names,
• Requires signature gatherers to attest, to the best of their knowledge, that signers provided correct names and addresses, even though gatherers have no way to verify that information,
• Threatens signature gatherers with a $5,000 fine and up to a year in jail if they are found to have attested falsely,
• Requires state officials to disqualify signatures if addresses do not match street addresses on voter registrations, even though state law imposes no such requirement on Washington voters.

Elections officials note that address discrepancies are frequent and occur for valid reasons, such as when people move. State officials also would be required to throw out signatures if people use a Post Office box rather than a street address.

Wilson said the measure would have a chilling effect on campaigns that rely on volunteer signature gatherers, because it requires them to attest to things they cannot possibly know, and threatens them with jail time. New rules requiring the disqualification of valid signatures would disenfranchise voters and drive up the cost of initiative campaigns, he said.

Although advocates claim the new rules would prevent signature fraud, Wilson pointed out that Washington has seen very few cases in which fraudulent signatures have been submitted by initiative campaigns, the last one occurring in 2013.

“Fraudulent signatures have never been a problem in Washington state to any significant degree. The last case was more than 10 years ago, and our elections officials have proven they are able to detect when it does happen. So what is the problem they are trying to address here?

“The problem for our colleagues is uppity voters who believe they ought to have a say in the way the state is run. How dare they?”