Accountability bill for paid initiative workers hits snag

Elements of a bill that holds paid signature gatherers to higher standards in initiative campaigns have been watered down by state Rep. Sam Hunt in a bid to find common ground. But critics say they still have enough votes to kill the measure again this year.

Professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman and others testified this morning against Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6449 in the House State Government Committee, which Hunt chairs. They said it would "chill" the citizen right of initiatives that is guaranteed in the state Constitution. Eyman also said a provision requiring registration and photos of paid signature gatherers that that Public Disclosure Commission could publicly release after campaigns would subject the campaign workers to harassment.

Hunt, an Olympia Democrat, isn't giving up. He said his alternative proposal is to drop requirements that paid signature-gatherers carry photo identification, get training and register for every initiative they work on — instead letting them register once a year at the PDC. He also would bar petition sponsors from from accepting petitions that have voter signatures but do not have the signature of the registered signature gatherer on the back (or front, as Hunt's morphing alternative might ultimately require).

Hunt said after the hearing he wants to make sure that it is easier to detect fraudulent signatures and see who is doing the wrongdoing. "Right now you don't know. If someone goes to the library and starts copying names out of the phone book … you don't know who forged them and you have no way to track down the violator," Hunt said.

He called it a "common sense" proposal and said a pending fraud case in Spokane shows that deceptions do occur with signature gathering. "There are 19 other states that are doing it; Oregon is doing it," he said of registration. "I think it adds accountability."

Sen. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, sponsored the original bill and welcomed Hunt's proposed changes.

But Democratic Rep. Mark Miloscia of Federal Way is siding with minority Republicans on the committee. They have four votes, enough to block the bill.

Miloscia said he was not satisfied during the hearing that there are problems actually solved by the bill, and he suggested afterwards that it is actually aimed at Eyman.

"It's turning him into a martyr. Why do Democrats want to do that?" Miloscia asked.

Armstrong said the bill harms the initiative process, which several speakers at the hearing also said. Included was Rebecca Faust, a Shelton resident who said the measure unreasonably conditions the counting of her initiative signature on the performance of a third party.

Eyman said that under Hunt’s proposals, 17,000 signatures would have been invalidated on one of his recent initiatives.

Our reporting partner Jordan Schrader at The News Tribune is filing a story for the morning papers about this ongoing battle.