A Costco-backed liquor privatization initiative will be on the statewide ballot for the second year in a row.

Initiative 1183 officially received the green light to go before Washington voters this fall when Secretary Reed certified it Thursday morning. His assistant, Ingrid Pharris-Goebel, stood by before she returned the signed document to our Elections Division. Here is the I-1183 certification. Our Elections Division’s signature checking team completed its random sample review of I-1183 late Wednesday afternoon.

The I-1183 sponsors submitted 361,339, far more than the 241,153 minimum of valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.  The large number allowed for a random sample of 3 percent. Of the 11,035 sampled, 9,714 were accepted. The other 1,321 signatures were rejected for a variety of reasons: 20 had a missing signature awaiting verification, 103 did not match the signature on file, 1,191 were not found on the voter rolls, and seven were duplicates.  The error rate was 13.98 percent, lower than the average rate of 18 percent in recent decades. The I-1183 signatures were collected in record time, less than three weeks, and were the most submitted for a 2011 initiative.

I-1183 is the second initiative to make the November ballot. Earlier this week, Secretary Reed certified Initiative 1125, the Tim Eyman-sponsored and Kemper Freeman-funded measure dealing with transportation tolls and revenue.

The initiative signature checkers are now examining the sigs for I-1163, the third and final initiative submitted to us in early July. That measure, supported by SEIU, deals with home health care workers. Elections Division officials expect that signature check will be done early next week.