Article by Erik Smith. Published on Thursday, July 16, 2010 EST.
Random Check of I-1098 Signatures Turns Up Nasty Surprise
Supporters of I-1098 deliver petitions July 1.
By Erik Smith
Staff writer/ Washington State Wire
UPDATED 11:30 a.m. July 15 with confirmation that canvasser was a union organizer for the Service Employees International Union.
OLYMPIA, July 15.—Here’s a new twist on an old story – for years lawmakers have been fretting about rampant fraud by the legions of paid signature gatherers who work Washington streetcorners every election season.
Their main worry has been that tax revolts might undo the work of the Legislature. And the only problem with their argument has been that over the last decade, out of the tens of millions of signatures that have been gathered, only two cases of fraud have been identified.
Now state officials say they’ve discovered another set of suspicious petitions, all presented by the same canvasser. But they’re not from an anti-tax campaign. They’re from the campaign for a state income tax, Initiative 1098.
And the campaign says they were turned in by a volunteer, not by a paid canvasser.
State elections officials, performing a random check of the petitions turned in for the initiative two weeks ago, flagged 20 sheets containing 350 signatures. The signatures all seemed to be written with the same pen, using the same handwriting.
Some were the names of actual voters, said Dave Ammons, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. The trouble was that the signatures didn’t match voting records and the addresses were wrong.
The secretary of state’s office is not releasing the name of the canvasser in question, on the ground that the petitions remain confidential because of a court order in an unrelated case, and that the canvasser’s name came from a protected document. But the canvasser’s name was released to the I-1098 campaign, and the campaign comfirms that the woman was a volunteer. Meanwhile, Austin Jenkins of National Public Radio is reporting that the canvasser was a paid union organizer for the Service Employees International Union, which is the primary financial backer of the campaign. The identity was confirmed by Local 775 spokesman Adam Glickman.
In a news release late Wednesday afternoon, the secretary of state’s office said it had launched an investigation. “We intend to get to the bottom of this,” said Secretary of State Sam Reed. “We take our role of protecting the state’s initiative process very, very seriously. There are laws against fraud and we will vigorously pursue the situation.”
The state elections office has formally notified the Washington State Patrol, and will involve the state attorney general’s office and local authorities. Initiative signature fraud is a Class C felony punishable by prison time.
Does Not Affect Outcome
I-1098 would impose an income tax on persons earning more than $200,000 a year. It is backed by a coalition of labor groups and social-service organizations, as well as by Bill Gates, Sr., father of the eastside software mogul. The campaign collected signatures through a large contingent of volunteers and a paid signature drive coordinated by PCI Consultants, Inc. at a cost of $436,000.
State law requires canvassers to sign each petition they circulate. Because of that, spokesman Sandeep Kaushik sad the campaign has been able to establish that the sheets were turned in by a volunteer, rather than by a paid canvasser.
The problem appears to be an isolated case, Kaushik said. He noted that the campaign used more than 1,000 volunteers.
“We have zero tolerance for fraud and we are cooperating fully with the secretary of state’s office,” he said. “These are serious allegations and we want to get to the bottom of them.”
The 350 suspect signatures were not enough to prevent the initiative from making the ballot. The campaign submitted 385,061 signatures, but only 241,153 are required. State elections officials finished their random check Thursday and said the measure qualified.
Signature checkers are plowing through the petitions with a “heightened awareness” of the possibility of fraud, said state elections director Nick Handy. So far it appears to be an isolated case involving one signature gatherer, he said.“In this day and age of ACORN, you’d think people would be more careful,” said Mark Funk, spokesman for the Defeat 1098 campaign. “This looks small, but it could become an oak.”
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