OLYMPIA —Secretary of State Kim Wyman filed legal action yesterday asking Thurston County Superior Court to declare she is not required to accept electronic signatures on initiative petitions. The filing was made as a result of initiative sponsors asserting the Secretary of State is required to count electronic signatures when verifying and canvassing signatures on initiative petitions.
Two types of initiatives may be filed in Washington state: initiatives to the People, which are submitted for a direct vote of the people; and initiatives to the Legislature, which are submitted to the state Legislature at its regular session each January. The court ruling would apply to both initiative types.
Currently, 67 initiatives to the Legislature have been proposed in 2020.
The deadline for sponsors to file an initiative to the Legislature for consideration in the 2021 session is Dec. 31, 2020. To be certified, petitions must contain a number of legal voter signatures equal to or in excess of 8% of the total votes cast for the office of Governor at the last regular state gubernatorial election. Votes cast in the 2016 gubernatorial race was 3,245,282, which means initiatives sponsors need to submit at least 259,622 valid signatures to qualify.
No signatures for initiatives to the People were submitted by the July 2, 2020, deadline.
Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees a number of areas within state government, including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office also manages the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, oversees the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees, and administers the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime.