Initiative signature-checking season is underway in Olympia. Thursday marked the first day for the first of six initiatives to be checked to see if each one has enough valid signatures to qualify for this November’s ballot.

The first one being examined is Initiative 1100, the liquor privatization measure backed by Costco and other retailers. The I-1100 campaign turned in about 396,000 signatures well before the July 2 deadline to submit petition sheets.

To make it onto the ballot, an initiative needs at least 241,153 valid voter signatures. However, I-1100 qualified for the 3 percent random sample check, which means that just under 12,000 signatures will be reviewed for I-1100. (It appears that the other five initiatives will receive a sample check, too.) Elections officials said they hope to be done with the I-1100 signature check by early next week.

There were 26 signature checkers working on computers today on I-1100, while another 19 workers were busy building volumes for the next measure to be checked, I-1082, the BIAW-backed proposal that deals with workers’ compensation.

The signature checking work is being done at the Thurston County Elections’ ballot-processing center in Tumwater’s Mottman industrial district.

To learn more about the initiative signature checking process, go here.