State Senate passes bill to regulate paid signature gathering industry

The Washington State Senate voted this evening to approve a bill prime sponsored by Senator McDermott that would regulate the paid signature gathering industry, requiring petitioners to register with the Public Disclosure Commission and requiring the Secretary of State to reject petitions which lack signed declarations certifying that the information on the petitions is true and correct.

NPI has long urged the Legislature to protect the spirit and the integrity of the initiative process by regulating the industry. I testified in support of this bill several weeks ago. Although we commend the Senate for passing ESSB 6449, we believe it needs some improvements before it is ready to go to the governor's desk. We'll be working with members of the House to strengthen this bill in the coming days.

The bill passed the Senate by a vote of twenty nine to nineteen. The roll call:

Voting Yea: Senators Berkey, Brown, Eide, Fairley, Franklin, Fraser, Gordon, Hargrove, Haugen, Hobbs, Jacobsen, Kastama, Kauffman, Keiser, Kilmer, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Marr, McAuliffe, McDermott, Murray, Oemig, Prentice, Pridemore, Ranker, Regala, Rockefeller, Shin, and Tom

Voting Nay: Senators Becker, Benton, Brandland, Carrell, Delvin, Hatfield, Hewitt, Holmquist, Honeyford, King, Morton, Parlette, Pflug, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Stevens, Swecker, and Zarelli

Excused: Senator McCaslin

ESSB 6449 will probably land in front of the House's State Government & Tribal Affairs Committee, which considered similar legislation earlier this session.