Should petition signatures be private?

February 15th, 2010 by Niki Reading | Filed under Uncategorized.

The Senate is now considering a bill to put into state law that signatures on petitions for initiatives and referenda are public.

“Until that decision is made, we certainly need to honor that,” said Sen. Val Stevens, referring to the Supreme Court case over the same issue. She said this would have a chilling effect on democracy.

“This bill does not address our right to a secret ballot. The votes people take will remain completely private and secret,” said Sen. Joe McDermott. “This is about the signatures … there is a clear and long, specific list of exemptions in the public records act. The signatories on initiative and referenda are not” on that list. “They are a public record. This underscores that.”

Sen. Randi Becker: “I think this is a tactic of intimidation. I think that the folks that want to express their real concerns of things that are so valuable to them, they’re going to be afraid to.”

Sen. Jim Kastama: “Actually, this is not a tactic of intimidation … it’s simply a matter of integrity in the system, that’s why the Secretary of State wants this.” He said making the signatures public would allow third party groups of any belief system could double check the Secretary of State’s work.

“This, to me, is irony,” Sen. Janea Holmquist said. She said just a few days ago, the Senate voted against putting a record of the 960 vote into the voters’ pamphlet.

The bill passed 28 to 20. It now heads to the House.

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2 Responses to “Should petition signatures be private?”

  1. Day 36: Let’s review | 15/02/10

    [...] Should petition signatures be private? [...]

  2. U.S. Supreme Court will hear R71 signature debate April 28… | 16/02/10

    [...] to get it clarified in law for future issues, the Senate passed a bill last night that would make future petition signatures a public record. Share and [...]