`Think before you sign’ — no takebacks of signatures
We offer this important caveat to efforts by some to persuade people to withdraw their signatures from amongst the hundreds of thousands that are submitted by sponsors to the Secretary of State for checking. While allowing withdrawal of signatures might seem like a logical and easy practice, in fact we do not remove signatures once they have been collected by sponsors and submitted to our office for verification. (A rough analogy might be that voters cannot recall their mail-in ballot if they change their mind about a particular race or ballot measure after voting.)
Individuals who signed a petition may send a note to our state Elections Division indicating that they did not mean to sign the petition, thought they had signed a different petition, were misled, changed their mind, etc. We will keep these on file as part of the public record for the ballot measure in question.
We do not search through 20,000 petition sheets with perhaps 300,000 or more names, looking for a particular name that may or may not be there. The July deadline for submitting initiatives is in the Constitution and begins a fast-track period that leads up to the September 7 certification of General Election candidates and ballot measures. While most initiative and referendum signature checks are done with a random sample, we would have to conduct a 100 percent check of all withdrawal letters — which is the tail wagging the dog. A 100 percent signature check can take six weeks or more of double-shifts.
There is an old Attorney General’s Opinion that says the Secretary of State’s Office has the authority to establish rules for withdrawals, but it does not say we are required to accept withdrawals. We don’t. Besides the time hurdle, we do not want to create an incentive for opposition groups to launch a “withdraw” campaign. The purpose of the signature check is to determine if a sufficient number of signatures have been submitting supporting the ballot measure; it is not to determine if an opposition campaign outnumbers the support campaign. Also, people change their minds on matters of public policy all the time. Signing a petition is not the same as voting on the issue raised in the petition. A signer is free to vote against the measure if it makes it to the ballot.
We hope that voters will inform themselves on the content of ballot measures before affixing their names. Voters’ use of this constitutionally-guaranteed process of citizen-legislation requires that we all do our homework and due diligence before signing, and not rely solely on the headline on a petition sheet or the representations made by the signature-gatherer. The entire text of each initiative and an independent description prepared by the Attorney General are available on the petitions themselves, online, and via the campaigns. In most cases, opposition groups have been formed and are a source of information should you so desire.
3 thoughts on “`Think before you sign’ — no takebacks of signatures”
Mr. Ammons,
I do most fervently agree with you that “voters (should) inform themselves on the content of ballot measures before affixing their names.” But I need to point out that this statement lies in the crux of the criticism of my organization, KnowThyNeighbor.org and WhoSigned.org having come from your office and Equal Rights Washington. Your office having told me that posting of names of signers (to look for fraud, misinformation, etc) would “hurt the integrity of Washington’s initiative petition process.” And ERW’s Josh Friedes cautioned me not to criticize or discuss the nature of the paper petitions themselves in Washington (remember the confusing nature of the bold headlines on Ref 71 which editorialized and claimed REf 71 would lead to gay marriage and the gay agenda in kindergarten?) as, according to Friedes, “progressives need to use the process too…”
So I find it a bit disingenuous that you would acknowledge to Washington voters that many may send a note to your office “indicating that they did not mean to sign the petition, thought they had signed a different petition, were misled…” when this is exactly what KnowThyNeighbor has been saying all along and has had a national track record of proving. To ERW’s Josh Friedes’ credit, Friedes’ friend and activist, Chris Mason, recorded on video Protect Marriage Washington volunteers blatantly lying about the nature of Ref 71 and its intent. This is NOT water under the bridge as though Ref 71 was Approved and Domestic Partnership rights were preserved, your threshold of certification of the initiative was only 1200 signatures. Your office did nothing to delay the initiative until the lawsuits were resolved and though your office, only thru lack of proper laws in Washington (most other states allow signature removal) does not allow removal of names, there is a strong possibility that KnowThyNeighbor will discover more than 1200 names that were connected with Ref 71 due to fraud, misinformation and deception.
Another note coming from KnowThyNeighbor.org, as your office was directed to our Arkansas model multiple times on this blog. Your office will not have to “search through 20,000 sheets with perhaps 300,000 or more names, looking for a particular name that may of may not be there.” KTN will provide (within a few weeks) a fully searchable database of names with the corresponding actual petition sheet linked (in pdf format). So your office and voters will get an accurate assessment of the data. KnowThyNeighbor.org was prepared to do this within the month after the petitions were submitted to your office back in 2009 and would have been able to provide this information before certification. That is…if the lawsuits were not filed against the release of signatures.
I am just glad that Referendum 71 was Approved and those seeking domestic partnership rights in Washington State have all the resources now to protect themselves and their families.
They sign something they not read, same for some people vote!
I never realized that it was even a potential option to “take back” my signature from a petition. Too many times have I felt pressured or rushed into signing petitions from people standing on the street or roaming my college campus and later regretted supporting the cause. I will keep this new information in mind!
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