Workers in the state elections office count petitions last summer.

UPDATE, March 7. — As a result of Senate inaction Monday, Senate Bill 5297 has “died” for this year’s legislative session.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, March 5.—Claudia McKinney, the Service Employees International Union worker who forged at least 349 signatures on petitions for last year’s Initiative 1098, was sentenced Friday in King County Superior Court.

            McKinney, convicted on a felony signature-fraud charge, will have to do 160 hours of community service, and is required to pay $2,490 for court costs and to reimburse the costs of the criminal investigation.

            And so ends one of the most embarrassing episodes of last year’s political campaign, in which a labor union that has pressed for tight restrictions on signature gathering as a “good government” measure proved at least partially responsible for the only case of signature fraud that has come before the state elections office in recent years. A bill the union backed this year is heading for the Senate floor. But the funny thing about it is that while the SEIU case has been used to justify the crackdown on initiatives, even by the union itself, it is hard, if not impossible, to see how the measure would have made a difference.

            Last year the Service Employees International Union was the biggest backer of Initiative 1098, a measure that would have imposed an income tax on the state’s wealthiest wage-earners. SEIU paid union members an hourly rate to collect signatures, but apparently didn’t bother checking the signature sheets that were turned in. Signature-checkers at the state elections office spotted the forgeries right away – sheets filled out with the same pen, in the same hand, with none of the wrinkles and tatters to indicate that the sheet had been carried by a canvasser in the field.

            Worst Case in Modern Times

Secretary of State Sam Reed, the state’s top elections official, has called it the worst case of signature fraud in modern times. “We want everyone to know that we have a zero-tolerance policy for signature fraud in this state,” he said.

            “The people of Washington have used and cherished the initiative and referendum process for almost a hundred years no, and they deserve and expect a clean and trustworthy process that is free of signature fraud. We will always be vigilant to any attempts to subvert the process.

            “The number of bad signatures was just a small percentage of the total submitted to us for checking, but it did represent an attack on the process, which relies greatly on the integrity of the people who circulate the petitions.”

            SEIU Pushes for ‘Reforms’

            The irony of the situation is that the union continued to push this year for regulation of the initiative signature-gathering process, as it has in previous legislative sessions, using the SEIU forger as a justification.

            But the bills wouldn’t have affected labor unions.

This year’s bills were backed by SEIU and two closely tied organizations, the national Ballot Initiative Strategies Center and the Ballot Initiative Network. They also had support from the Washington Public Interest Research Group, a liberal activist organization, and the League of Women Voters and the American Association of Retired Persons.

            Advocates maintained that fraud is rampant, even though the union case is the only one to come before the state elections office in recent years. And they would have cracked down only on signature-gathering companies, which are frequently used for conservative themed initiatives.

            Draconian Requirements

Though the only surviving measure, Senate Bill 5297, has been declawed by amendments, it is interesting to consider what the original bills would have done. The House and Senate measures would have required signature gathering companies to register with the state and would have barred them from operating if owners had been convicted of a recent felony. Companies would have been required to ensure that signature gatherers had not been convicted of felonies, required mugshots and identification for canvassers, and required the circulators to sign their names and addresses on the fronts of petition sheets, where contact information would be disclosed to anyone making a public records request. Signature gathering companies would have been required to sign an oath making them responsible for criminal activities committed by their canvassers.

            The advocates maintained that fraud is rampant, even though the union case is the only one to come before the state elections office in recent years. In testimony before the Senate Government Operations Committee, Joel Foster of the Ballot Initiative Strategies Center said the SEIU case in this state and examples of fraud in other states demonstrate the need for a crackdown.

            “There are still individuals and special interest groups in the state of Washington that seem to believe that initiative fraud stops at Washington borders, that somehow the Idaho border and the Columbia River prevent fraud and it disappears,” he said.

            The surviving version of the bill eliminates the registration requirements, but would allow the Secretary of State’s office to significantly increase initiative filing fees and would still allow the public disclosure of canvasser names and addresses. It has been advanced to the Senate floor for a vote, which presumably will take place before a Monday deadline. Twenty amendments have already been filed, signalling a big floor fight is in the offing.

            Lesson of SEIU Case

            The McKinney case demonstrates that paid signature gathering isn’t the problem, said Tim Eyman, the state’s leading initiative promoter. It’s organizations that do not check petitions before they turn them in. Eyman said organizations like SEIU are more likely to fail the test because signature-gathering companies have a standard of professionalism to uphold. No one will hire them if they mess up like SEIU.