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Tag: signatures

1960 petition signature gatherers
Paid petition signature gathering in Washington: What’s legal and why

Paid petition signature gathering in Washington: What’s legal and why

A recent news report in the Everett Herald noted that June is a prime petition-gathering month for four statewide initiatives now in circulation. According to the story, workers collecting signatures to put a referendum on Seattle’s new job tax on the November ballot are being paid $6 per signature, and anyone who gets 75 or more signatures a day gets an entry in a drawing for a four-country trip to Europe. “Too good to be true? Or legal? Maybe,” the…

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John Hancock's Declaration of Independence signature
Signatures and state law: The enduring power of the pen

Signatures and state law: The enduring power of the pen

Even though the routine act of signing your name to authorize credit-card charges will soon become history, it is perhaps premature to consider the pen-and-paper signature doomed to obsolescence. Across the U.S., government at all levels remains legally reliant on hand-signed names in an immense number of ways. Federally, you might be able to electronically sign a tax return for the Internal Revenue Service, but a U.S. Passport and a Social Security card each require a written signature. The rationale goes back…

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Ninth Circuit issues opinion on R-71 petition case

Ninth Circuit issues opinion on R-71 petition case

Last week in California, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled to lift the ban on Washington releasing the Referendum 71 petitions. But the U.S. Supreme Court this week suspended the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, which means the ban remains in effect while the Supremes prepare to resolve this issue once and for all. In its reversal of Tacoma-based U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle’s ruling last month that the petitions shouldn’t be released because they are “anonymous…

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R-71 signature take-backs?

R-71 signature take-backs?

Well, no.  In response to inquiries, the state Elections Division says state regulations adopted on 2006 do not permit voters to withdraw their initiative and referendum petitions once the petition sheets have been turned over to the state for verification. The analogy is that voters can’t re-call a mail-in ballot because they believe they were misled or lied to by a candidate or campaign. It’s true that a half-century-old attorney general’s opinion said the Secretary of State has authority to accept withdrawal of signatures,…

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