Washington State Bill to Warn Petition Signers That Their Names and Addresses May be Public

Several Washington state representatives have introduced HB 2418, which says that every initiative and referendum petition sheet must say at the top, “Signature petitions are public documents. By signing this document, your name, address, and signature may be released as part of a public records request.”

The bill’s authors didn’t include petitions to put minor party or independent presidential candidates on the November ballot in the scope of their bill. However, it is already existing policy in Washington state that all petitions are public records. It seems somewhat inconsistent that the bill includes some types of petitions, but not other types.

If the U.S. Supreme Court accepts the case Doe v Reed and then issues an opinion that petitions signers are entitled to secrecy, then the bill will be meaningless.


Comments

Washington State Bill to Warn Petition Signers That Their Names and Addresses May be Public — No Comments

  1. How about adding to the bill language ??? — the leftwing / rightwing party hacks will put your name and address on one or more of their purge lists. Also your signature may be forged on various party hack documents.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.