Accidentally sign a right wing initiative? Here's how to withdraw your signature

Over the last few days, we've received several reports from folks who have been tricked or duped by mercenary petitioners into signing right wing initiatives that they don't support. It seems that some signature gatherers are pretty desperate to get a buck and are resorting to deception to make their money. Here's a curious case of somebody who apparently supported the beverage industry's revenue repeal initiative but not Tim Eyman's latest scheme:

I refused repeatedly to sign I-1053. On 6/21/10 I was tricked through deception into signing it. There was an initiative I supported on top of I-1053 that was filled up with signatures. The person obtaining the signatures lifted the page and had me sign page 2 w/o showing me the top of the form. After I signed she said that if I wanted to sign the other initiative it was "over there".

I asked what I had just signed and she said, "it's the candy, bottled water, and soda pop initiative" and walked away to talk to other people. This was in front of Fred Meyer store in Shelton. I want to report the trickery and deception. There is no way I wanted my signature on that initiative! I am very angry she deceived me this way.

If you've been tricked into signing Initiative 1053 or another right wing initiative you don't support, take comfort in the knowledge that there is a way for you to withdraw your signature: You can ask the Secretary of State not to count it by sending the Elections Division a letter.

We've prepared signature withdrawal letters for each of the right wing initiatives currently in circulation, based on a PDF letter created by the Rebuilding Our Economic Future Coalition. The major improvement we've made is that our PDF letters are more cleanly formatted. You can fill out the form fields inside Adobe Reader so that all you have to do after you print your letter is sign it.

Download a letter here:

• Initiative 1053 (Tim Eyman's scheme to destroy majority rule)
• Initiative 1082 (BIAW's attempt to cripple worker protection)
• Initiative 1100 (Liquor privatization effort funded by Costco)
• Initiative 1105 (Liquor privatization effort funded by Odom/Young's Markets)
• Initiative 1107 (Beverage industry's revenue repeal measure)

Once you download the letter that corresponds to the initiative you signed...

1. Fill out the form fields (name, address, city, county, phone, date)
2. Print out the PDF
3. Add your signature
4. Scan the letter back into your computer, in PDF format
5. Open your email program and begin composing a new message. The message subject should read: I wish to withdraw my signature from Initiative Measure No. 1[xxx]. In the body, just enter a short message asking the Secretary of State to take action on the attached letter.
6. Attach the newly scanned PDF to the message
7. Enter elections (at) sos (dot) wa (dot) gov in the To field
8. Enter info (at) permanentdefense (dot) org in the CC field
9. Send the message

If your scanner won't ouput the completed letter you scanned into PDF format, send the file (e.g. TIFF, JPG, etc.) to info (at) permanentdefense (dot) org, and we'll convert it into PDF for you and send it on to the Secretary of State's office.

It's a good idea to request a return receipt (also known as a delivery receipt) for your message if your email server supports the feature. That way, you'll get confirmation that somebody at the Secretary of State's office opened and actually looked at your email message. We're checking to see if it is possible to fax a letter to the Elections Division. They used to have a fax number, but the one we had on record appears to have been deactivated.

Questions? Feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact us directly.