Second gun initiative certified
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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Secretary of State
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Boxes of Initiative 591 signatures were delivered to the Elections Division of the Office of Secretary of State in late November.
(UPDATE: Fixes number of signatures filed for I-591)
Secretary of State Kim Wyman has officially certified Initiative 591 to go before the legislature this session.
I-591 is the second gun-related measure before the legislature and would prohibit government agencies from requiring background checks on firearm recipients unless a uniform national standard is required.
Sponsors of I-591 submitted 349,860 petition signatures in late November exceeding the minimum requirement of 246,372 valid voter signatures, Elections official said Thursday.
The high number of signatures submitted qualified I-591 for a 3 percent random sample check. This meant that out of 19,749 pages of signatures, 10,669 signatures were checked for validity. Checkers accepted 9,286 of the signatures sampled, while 1,383 were rejected. Of those rejected, 1,285 were because the signers were not registered voters in Washington and 72 did not match those on file. The rest were rejected as duplicates or because the signature image was pending.
The rival of I-591, initiative 594, has already been certified by the Office of Secretary of State and would require universal background checks on gun purchases. I-594 sponsors submitted 346,834 signatures.
The Senate and House held hearings on both measures earlier this week. Lawmakers are not expected to approve either alternative meaning both initiatives would then appear on the fall statewide ballot.
More information on current initiatives to the legislature can be found here.
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