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Initiative #694 Gains Spot on November Ballot |
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News Release
Issued: July 27, 1998
Olympia –- Initiative #694 has sufficient valid signatures to go before state voters in November, Secretary of State Ralph Munro announced today.
According to Munro, the state's chief elections officer, a check of petition signatures submitted in support of the proposal has shown that the measure meets constitutional requirements for a minimum of 179,248 valid voter signatures. As a result, he said, the measure will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.
The official ballot title on Initiative 694 reads, “Shall the termination of a fetus' life during the process of birth be a felony crime except when necessary to prevent the pregnant woman's death?”
Sponsors of I-694 submitted a total of 216,716 petition signatures to the Secretary of State. Election officials determined that the petition contained 193,904 valid signatures - 14,656 above the required minimum. Signatures are invalid if the signer is not a registered voter or if he or she signed more than once.
The petition was checked using the “random sample” process authorized by state law. Under the process, a statistically valid percentage of the signatures are selected at random and checked against voter registration records. A mathematical formula is then applied to the results to obtain a projected rate of invalidation.
According to Munro, elections officials inspected 20,656 signatures (a 9.5 percent sample) on I-694. From that inspection, it was determined that the measure had an invalidation rate of 10.5 percent. The rate is among the lowest in the history of state initiatives.
Of the three initiative proposals submitted to the Secretary of State this year, I-694 is the second to make the ballot. Elections officials verified I-688 (minimum wage) last week. The last measure to be checked is I-692 (medical use of marijuana).
