From Ballotpedia

Ballot measures in Washington State
Constitutional amendments
Initiatives to the People
Initiatives to the Legislature
Statutes referred by Legislature
Veto referendums
Political topics on the ballot
Laws • History

In the state of Washington, there are "Initiatives to the People" and Initiatives to the Legislature.

Initiatives to the People, if certified to have sufficient signatures, are submitted for a vote of the people at the next state general election.

Initiatives to the Legislature, if certified, are submitted to the Legislature at its next regular session in January. Once submitted, the Legislature must take one of the following three actions:

• The Legislature can adopt the initiative as proposed, in which case it becomes law without a vote of the people;
• The Legislature can reject or refuse to act on the proposed initiative, in which case the initiative must be placed on the ballot at the next state general election; or
• The Legislature can approve an alternative to the proposed initiative, in which case both the original proposal and the Legislature's alternative must be placed on the ballot at the next state general election.

Controversy over Initiative 1029

In 2008, SEIU submitted signatures on an initiative petition, Initiative 1029, to Sam Reed, the Washington Secretary of State. At some point, it was discovered that SEIU had mislabeled the petition forms. Intending to circulate the initiative as an Initiative to the People, they had instead printed on the petition that it was an Initiative to the Legislature. Reed indicated that he would accept the petitions as an intiative to the people (rather than the legislature) despite what it said on the petition.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorialized against this, saying:

"Could Secretary of State Sam Reed still change his mind about accepting egregiously mislabeled initiative petitions? We'd like to think the steady, veteran public leader could summon the political fortitude to reverse his decision to ignore a powerful labor union's flagrant carelessness on an issue that's supposedly so important it must be brought to voters in November."^[1]

See also

• List of Washington State Initiatives to the People

External links

• List of all Initiatives to the People in Washington, starting in 1914.

References

v • d • e Types of ballot measures General terms Initiated state statute • Initiated constitutional amendment • Indirect initiated state statute • Indirect initiative amendment • Indirect initiative • Legislative referral • Legislatively-referred state statute • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment • Commission referral • Automatic ballot referral • Veto referendum • Constitutional convention • Bond issue • Recall • Advisory question State-specific terms Ballot question (Colorado) • Bond Propositions (California) • Initiatives to the Legislature (Washington) • Initiatives to the People (Washington) • Referendum (Colorado) • Legislative Referendum (Michigan) • Referendum Bill (Washington) • Statute affirmation (Nevada) • Referendum Election (Navajo Nation) Local terms City council ballot referral • Initiated city charter amendment • Initiated city ordinance • Grand jury • Redevelopment and Housing Authority Referendum (Virginia) • Reverse referendum (Minnesota) • Tax rate recall referendum (Kentucky)

	v • d • e State of Washington Olympia (capital)
Ballot Measures	List of Washington ballot measures | Local measures | School bond issues | Ballot measure laws | Initiative laws | History of I&R | Campaign Finance Requirements | Recall process |
Government	Washington State Constitution | House of Representatives | Senate |
State executive officers	Governor | Lieutenant Governor | Attorney General | Secretary of State | Treasurer | State Auditor | Superintendent of Public Instruction | Commissioner of Insurance | Director of Agriculture | Commissioner of Public Lands | Director of Labor and Industries | Chairman of Utilities and Transportation |
Judiciary	Washington Supreme Court | Superior Court | Court of Appeals | District Court | Municipal Court | Judicial nomination process | Judicial news | Judicial activist organizations |
Transparency Topics	Public Records Act | Transparency Checklist | Transparency Legislation | State budget |
Divisions	State | List of Counties | List of Cities | List of Towns | List of School Districts | Evaluation of county websites | Evaluation of city websites | Evaluation of township websites | Evaluation of school district websites |