Yesterday, in a ceremony in Olympia, Governor Jay Inslee signed NPI’s legislation, prime sponsored by Senator Patty Kuderer and Representative Amy Walen, to make voting easier in Washington State by replacing Tim Eyman’s advisory votes push polls with truthful, useful fiscal information that’s always available to voters online.

This morning, Eyman hilariously launched a halfhearted effort to lobby Inslee against signing the legislation — even though the governor had already acted on the bill.

Eyman, apparently unaware that Senate Bill 5082 had become session law the day before, sent out an email missive this morning headlined “Tell Inslee what you think. I ask you to send him an email now. Urge him to veto Senate Bill 5082.”

“These are the final days of this year’s legislative session so he’s making final decisions now!” Eyman told his followers. “I make it easy to send an email to him and his team. Remember, he only knows what he hears — so I want you to be extra clear in your email so that he’ll have a harder time ignoring your voice.”

Emphasis above is Eyman’s.

Senate Bill 5082 passed the House of Representatives on April 7th, 2021, which was three weeks ago today. Eyman knew then it would be going to Governor Jay Inslee’s desk for signature, yet curiously, he waited until today — twenty-hour hours after Inslee had signed the bill — to launch a letter-writing effort urging a veto.

Eyman has been active in Washington State politics for decades, but apparently doesn’t know that when the Legislature sends the governor a bill, the governor must act on it within five calendar days (excluding Sundays) if adjournment is more than five days away.

In the case of 5082, the bill was delivered on Friday, April 14th, which is more than five days before this year’s scheduled adjournment of Sunday, April 23rd, and the bill’s status page was updated with that information on the same day – April 14th. The fifth day following delivery was Thursday, April 20th. Had the governor not signed or vetoed 5082 then, it would have become law without a gubernatorial signature.

So, even if Eyman were unaware that the governor’s office had scheduled a bill signing ceremony for 5082 – something he could have learned from checking the governor’s website – he ought to have known that 5082’s fate would be decided by the end of April 20th one way or another, given what the Constitution says about timeframes for signing bills.

But Eyman has never bothered to brush up on his constitutional knowledge, as evidenced by how many times he’s authored unconstitutional initiatives.

This is the second time that Eyman has missed the boat with respect to attempting to influence the fate of our legislation. In January, Eyman did not appear at the bill’s initial public hearing in the Senate’s State Government & Elections Committee because — by his own admission to Chair Sam Hunt — he wasn’t paying attention. We’ve now about reached the end of session and history is repeating itself. Fun times.