Three initiatives make the ballot

Image

To nobody’s surprise, all three initiatives submitted to our Elections Division in July have qualified for this November’s General Election ballot. The third and final initiative to receive the go-ahead is I-1163, the SEIU-backed measure requiring background checks and training for long-term care workers. Signature checkers completed their review of the I-1163 sigs on Monday afternoon, and Secretary Reed certified it later in the day. I-1163 sponsors turned in nearly 340,000 signatures, way over the 241,153 bare minimum required to qualify for the ballot. The large number of signatures also resulted in the measure undergoing the 3 percent random sampling (in this case, 10,317 signatures). Of that number, 9,028 were accepted. Of the 1,289 rejected, 19 were missing a signature awaiting verification, 52 did not match the signature on file, 1,209 were not on the voter rolls, and nine were duplicates. The error rate was 15.28 percent, better than the average invalidation rate of 18 percent in recent decades. The two initiatives that already received the green light for November are I-1125, the Tim Eyman- and Kemper Freeman-backed plan that deals with transportation tolls and revenue; and I-1183, the Costco-supported measure that seeks to privatize liquor sales in Washington. Washington voters will see five measures on the statewide ballot this fall. The other two are constitutional amendments that were placed on the ballot by the Legislature earlier this year:

• Senate Joint Resolution 8205 concerns the length of time a voter must reside in Washington to vote for president and vice president.

• Senate Joint Resolution 8206 deals with the budget stabilization account maintained in the state treasury.