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Six Initiatives Appear to Make Ballot

Article by Erik Smith. Published on Friday, July 04, 2010 EST.

Elections Officials Still Need to Check, But All Look Like a Slam-Dunk

 


Political consultant Paul Berendt delivers petitions for I-1105, the last of the campaigns to turn in signatures on Friday, the state deadline for initiative campaigns. Around him are the white boxes in which state elections officials have packed the petitions they had already recieved.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

 

OLYMPIA, July 2.—It looks like six initiatives are heading to the ballot this year, and even though state officials still have to go through the mechanics of checking signatures, all of the campaigns exceeded the mark by such a wide a margin that there really doesn’t appear to be any doubt.

            So that means voters will see five business-backed measures and a sixth from the left. Two of them are even on the same topic – liquor-store privatization.

            And packed away in boxes by state elections officials are petitions containing some 2 million signatures – the documents that made it all possible.

            On Friday, three initiative campaigns turned in signatures and a fourth announced it just wasn’t going to make it. That was I-1068, the marijuana-legalization initiative that waited for big donations that never came, then tried to gather the needed signatures the old-fashioned way, with an all-volunteer crew. It still came pretty close – somewhere north of 200,000 signatures, out of the 241,000 required. And it shows that the issue may be a good bet for next year.

            All the others used paid signature gatherers and turned in 300,000 signatures or more. That offers a wide margin of safety when checkers start going through the names next week. All will qualify for a quick 3-percent random check of signatures, rather than the laborious 100-percent check of all signatures that is required when the count is close.

            The lucky six are:

n      I-1053, which would require a two-thirds vote of the state House and Senate before lawmakers can raise taxes. Lawmakers also can refer a tax vote to the people with a simple majority.

n      I-1082, which would allow private competition with the state workers’ compensation system.

n      I-1098, which would impose a high-earner income tax.

n     I-1100, which would privatize the state liquor stores and allow retailers to deal directly with manufacturers.

n     I-1105, which would privatize the state liquor stores and require retailers to purchase through liquor distributors.

n      I-1107, which would roll back taxes imposed by the Legislature this year on soda pop, candy, gum and bottled water.


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