The state Supreme Court has just handed down a 6-3 opinion that spells out in strong, clear terms that the Secretary of State properly used its discretion in allowing a public vote last fall on an initiative dealing with training of home-based careworkers.

Critics of the plan sought to block the vote, saying a flaw in the petitions referred to the measure being directed at the state Legislature, not to voters as a people’s initiative. They said the Secretary should not process some 300,000 voter signatures that were submitted by initiative sponsors.  On September 4, the high court held a hearing and on the next day, issued a simple order authorizing the Secretary of State to proceed with plans to place Initiative 1029 on the fall ballot.  I-1029 proceedings can be found here.

On Thursday, the court released an opinion with its reasoning.   Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Gerry Alexander said the I-1029 petition was flawed, erroneously including a reference to the Legislature.  But the court said the sponsors had made clear their intent for their measure to be treated as an initiative to the people, and that the state Elections Division handled it in that fashion from the day the measure was first filed. It’s unlikely that voters or potential signers of the petitions were thrown off by the error, the court said…

In any event, the court said, “The Secretary has discretionary authority to decide whether to reject a noncomplying petition” and is not compelled to reject the signatures. The Secretary did not abuse his discretion and was not arbitary or capricious, the court said. Three dissenting justices said the initiative petition wasn’t properly worded and should not have been accepted as an initiative to the people.

Voters strongly approved the initiative in November.

Secretary Reed, represented by state Attorney General Rob McKenna, says he’s pleased with today’s strong expression of support from the state’s highest court. The Secretary’s office never viewed the mistakes on the I-1029 petition as a fatal flaw and was pleased that he was not forced to ignore the wishes of over 300,000 petition-signers. Future sponsors will surely take note of the need for careful drafting so that similar problems don’t recur, he says.