It’s Time to Disclose Washington’s Referendum 71 Petition Signatures

As reported in the Seattle Times, a federal judge in Tacoma, Washington, is expected to rule in the next two weeks on whether the 137,500 names collected on Referendum 71 petitions should be made public.  The 2009 signature gathering campaign by Protect Marriage was an effort to use a popular referendum to overturn the state legislature’s domestic-partnership law.

As the lead author of  an amicus brief on behalf of the state of Washington and its defense of the state’s Public Records Act in the 2010 case, Doe v. Reed, in which the US Supreme Court upheld the state’s interest in disclosure, there is no question that the names on the petitions should be made public.  As I wrote in my amicus brief, there’s little credible evidence that signers of Referendum 71 petitions in Washington were subject to threats or harassment.  As our amicus brief states:

Nor does disclosure create any risk of intimidation or harassment of signers. Of the approximately 600,000 voters who signed referendum petitions in Washington in the last decade, Petitioners have failed to identify a single individual who claims to have been harassed or intimidated as a result of mere disclosure of her signature. More than a million names of signers of petitions for referenda and initiatives opposing gay marriage have been posted on the internet. Yet there is no evidence that any of these signers has faced any threat of retaliation or harassment by reason of that disclosure.

Furthermore, as we note in our brief:

Disclosure does not “infringe ‘privacy of identity, association and belief,’ as Petitioners suggest, because there is no reasonable expectation or assumption of privacy or secrecy: any voter who signs a petition knows that her signature, name and address, and the fact that she is signing, are being put on paper in the hands of a stranger, in a public place, in front of others, and then submitted to a government agency. Further, public disclosure of petitions is widespread and routine in states that allow ballot initiatives and referenda.

Public disclosure of signatures on ballot measures is also necessary to ensure fraud is not being committed during signature gathering phase and the state of Washington has a compelling interest in making signatures part of the public record.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle should heed the words of Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote pointedly in his concurring opinion in Doe v. Reed, why disclosure is necessary, and can embolden citizens.

There are laws against threats and intimidation; and harsh criticism, short of unlawful action, is a price our people have traditionally been willing to pay for self governance…Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed. For my part, I do not look forward to a society which, thanks to the Supreme Court, campaigns anonymously and even exercises the direct democracy of initiative and referendum hidden from public scrutiny and protected from the accountability of criticism. This does not resemble the Home of the Brave.

Signed,

Not Anonymous.

Yes, there are Regulations on Signature Gathering in California

This news story, by @gustafsoncraig, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, about a petition gathering effort in San Diego, gets it wrong when it comes to regulations on signature gathering in California. Almost anything does not go in California when it comes to signature gathering efforts.

A simple visit to the CA Secretary of State reveals the regulations on signature gathering.

In addition to having to disclose if he or she is being paid or a volunteer, when asked, a petition gatherer must disclose on the petition his or her name and place of residence, as well as attest that he or she is qualified to be a registered voter in California. The gatherer must also attest that he or she witnessed the appended signatures on the petition and that each signature is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.

Equally important are the regulations placed on the person in charge of the petition gathering effort, as well as all paid signature gatherers.  Prior to circulating an initiative petition for signatures, these individuals must “execute and submit to the proponent(s) a signed statement,” that reads (Elections Code § 9609)):

I,__________, acknowledge that it is a misdemeanor under state
law (Section 18650 of the Elections Code) to knowingly or willfully
allow the signatures on an initiative petition to be used for any
purpose other than qualification of the proposed measure for the
ballot. I certify that I will not knowingly or willfully allow the
signatures for this initiative to be used for any purpose other than
qualification of the measure for the ballot.

Furthermore, there are numerous criminal penalties for signature gatherers who misrepresent the content of the petition they are circulating, including misrepresenting the purpose or contents of the measure to potential signers. Straight from the Secretary of State’s handy handbook:

The Elections Code imposes certain criminal penalties for abuses related to the circulation of initiative petitions. It prohibits circulators from misrepresenting the purpose or contents of the petition to potential petition signers, intentionally making a false statement in response to a voter’s inquiry as to whether the circulator is a paid signature gatherer or a volunteer (Elections Code § 18600), and from refusing to allow prospective signers to read the initiative measure or petition or Attorney General’s summary. (Elections Code §§ 18601, 18602.) No person may offer or give payment or anything of value to another in exchange for signing an initiative petition. (Elections Code § 18603.) The code also makes circulators, signers, and others criminally liable for signing or soliciting to sign false, forged, fictitious, or ineligible signatures and names. (Elections Code §§ 18610-18614.) The law provides criminal penalties for persons, including public officials, who make false affidavits (for example, the circulator’s declaration is an affidavit), returns, or certifications concerning any initiative measure. (Elections Code §§ 18660, 18661.)

Circulating petitions within 100 feet of a polling place or an elections official’s office on election day is prohibited. (Elections Code § 18370(a).) The law prohibits any person from soliciting or obtaining money or anything of value to aid in unlawfully stopping circulation or the filing of an initiative measure. (Elections Code §§ 18620-18622.) It also prohibits any person from stealing petitions and from threatening petition circulators or circulators’ relatives with the intent to dissuade them from circulating the petition (Elections Code §§ 18630, 18631). Any person who is paid by the proponent(s) to obtain signatures on any initiative petition is subject to severe penalties for failing to surrender the petition to the proponent(s) for filing. (Elections Code § 18640.)

Unlike in other states–including Washington where Doe v. Reed, the important 2010 US Supreme Court decision, emanated–in California “the petition or list of signatures may be used for no purpose other than the qualification of the initiative measure,” including for mailing lists or fundraising. (Of course, Butcher-Forde, Howard Jarvis‘ fundraising team in the 1970s-1980s, routinely flouted this restriction.)

My friend Thad Kousser at UCSD offers some good insight:

There’s no ‘truth in advertising’ law in politics,” he said. “What we have is a system designed to give microphones to both sides who can call the other out for lying and also a robust political press. … You mislead the public at your own peril because the benefits for lying in a campaign are far outweighed by the costs of really being caught in a lie.”

Kousser added, “That’s certainly true as a candidate because it becomes a character issue if you’re seen as lying about the other candidate. It’s not quite so clear whether this holds true for initiative campaigns.”

But when it comes to signature gathering campaigns in California, there are rules, and petition gatherers, as well as potential signers of petitions, would be wise to be aware of them.