As Referendum 71's validation process continues along, the people working at "ground zero" on this closely scrutinized and controversial ballot measure are the signature checkers themselves. Nearly 30 of them are spending long shifts daily at computers in the basement of the Elections Division building, verifying the names, signatures and addresses of those people who signed the petition sheets submitted by R-71 sponsors. (We now have two shifts of workers to speed up the process.) It's up to the checkers to determine if the signers are registered voters in Washington, if they've signed the referendum petition more than once (a "duplicate signature") or need a "checkable" voter-registration signature on file with a county auditor. If a petition signer doesn’t pass muster in any of these three areas, the signer is put in the "rejected" category. At that point, a "master checker" reviews the rejected signer's information, since it is OSOS policy to double-check on a rejected petition signer. If the master checker concurs with the first checker, then that petition signer's name stays "rejected." But that doesn’t always happen. Because the master checkers have performed this sort of work for many years, they sometimes find the person in the voter database, where the original checker may have missed it. When that happens, the signer’s name is moved into the referendum’s “approved” category. Besides signatures checkers, there are people from both sides of the R-71 divide who are in the Elections Division’s basement to observe the checkers' work. The Elections Division welcomes observers to watch the process, but has established guidelines so things remain orderly and the sig checkers can do their work without being bothered. Among them: -- Observers may make no record of any names or addresses on a petition. -- Observers may not handle petitions, or computer systems, although they may observe any aspect of the canvassing procedure. -- Each group of observers must have one person in charge of their group at all times. -- Observers must be identified with name tags provided by the Elections office. -- Observers are asked to "minimize the physical disruption caused by their presence" and not hover or crowd a checker. -- Observers are requested to not ask a checker to slow down, speed up or alter his/her work for the observers.� -- While we normally allow no more than two observers from each side at any time, we're now allowing three apiece on the R-71 check.