The Secretary of State’s office just put out a release saying that a random sample check has determined that Initiative 960 has sufficient valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, as expected:

According to elections officials, a check of petition signatures submitted in support of the proposal has shown that the measure meets constitutional requirements for a minimum of 224,880 valid voter signatures. The measure will appear on the November 6th General Election ballot.

Initiative 960 would require two-thirds legislative approval or voter approval for tax increases, legislative approval of fee increases, certain published information on tax-increasing bills, and advisory votes on taxes enacted without voter approval. The official ballot summary on Initiative 960 reads, “This measure would require either a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature or voter approval for all tax increases. New or increased fees would require prior legislative approval. An advisory vote would be required on any new or increased taxes enacted by the legislature without voter approval. The office of financial management would be required to publish cost information and information regarding legislators’ voting records on bills imposing or increasing taxes or fees.”

Sponsors of Initiative 960 submitted a total of 314,504 petition signatures to the Secretary of State. Election officials conducted a random sample of 9,607 signatures, of which 8,410 were valid signatures – 1,197 were determined invalid. Signatures are invalid if the signer is not a registered voter or if he or she signed more than once.

The petition was checked using the “random sample” process authorized by state law. Under the process, a statistically valid percentage of the signatures are selected at random and checked against voter registration records. A mathematical formula is then applied to the results to obtain a projected rate of invalidation.

Election officials examined 9,607 (a 3 percent sample) on Initiative 960. From that inspection, it was determined that the measure had an invalidation rate of 17.1 percent.

There is a possibility that I-960 will still not go before voters in November, if the state Supreme Court accepts for review the case filed by Futurewise and SEIU 775 and decides for the plaintiffs. But the likelihood is that I-960 will be on the ballot, and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that it fails.

This campaign began months ago with the launch of Tim Eyman’s so-called “25% property tax initiative” which Permanent Defense has opposed and fought for a year, since Tim Eyman announced it last June, along with many other opponents.

The test of all that hard work comes this week. The signature deadline for I-864 and I-892 is fast approaching. Tim Eyman needs more than 197,000 signatures- he needs 250,000 because of errors, duplicities, and other common problems with signatures.

Thus, paid signature gatherers will be out in full force- hoping to make a buck off of your name, and helping to qualify I-864 and I-892 for the ballot.

IT IS CRUCIAL that you be alert and focused when you are out and about over the next few days, especially the first couple days of this week. DO NOT allow yourself to be subverted or dragged into signing I-864 and I-892.

I-892 and I-864 would be DEVASTATING to Washington’s communities. There is simply no other way to put it- together, the two initiatives represent a cutback in needed public services like fire departments and libraries, and an expansion of gambling into neighborhood bars and bowling alleys.

For months, we’ve worked hard to fight this initiative. We must redouble, even retriple, our efforts, now, to ensure that I-864 and I-892 do not qualify for the November ballot. We do this by helping to inform voters. The more voters know about these initiatives, the less willing they are to sign them.

That’s because voters who are informed know of the consequences- the consequences of signing or voting for these initiatives.

So be especially alert this week, and help us out by spreading the word. Remember, the Voter Education Center includes a great deal of useful information, including flyers and an awareness handout that you can download.

The Release Center has been updated with a number of new links and downloads, as has the Action Center. These three centers will continue to serve as online hubs for, hopefully, the last week in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiative 892.

There are many ways for you to get involved. You can volunteer with us to help aid voters, report signature gathering activity when you see it by calling 1-800-856-2465, and spread the word in your community by downloading our flyers and distributing them among family, friends, and neighbors.

Even the smallest effort helps to make a difference. Working together, we can achieve victory this year and ensure that our communities will be safe from drastic cutbacks in public services and a huge expansion of gambling.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our efforts throughout this week.

The volunteer effort at NW Folklife throughout Memorial Day weekend was a great success. Volunteers from Permanent Defense, TaxSanity.org, and the Voter Education Committee alerted voters to the dangers of I- 864 and I-892.

Many voters were dissuaded from signing the petitions after what they learned about the initiative’s devastating effects on Washington communities.

Tim Eyman is relying on out of state paid signature gatherers to collect names for his initiatives. Thanks to the volunteers at Folklife, many of these paid signature gatherers decided to stop deceiving voters. They gave up and left.

Our success at Folklife is noteworthy, but we’re not out of the woods yet. We still need your help to get voters informed about the dangers of Eyman’s initiatives and the problems with paid signature gathering.

The new Voter Education Center includes a great deal of useful information, including a couple new flyers and a voter awareness handout that you can download.

The Release Center has been updated with a number of new links and downloads, as has the Action Center. These three centers will serve as online hubs for the last great stage in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiatives 892.

There are many ways for you to get involved. You can volunteer with us to help aid voters, report signature gathering activity when you see it by calling 1-800-856-2465, and spread the word in your community by downloading our flyers and distributing them among family, friends, and neighbors.

Even the smallest effort helps to make a difference. Working together, we can achieve victory this year and ensure that our communities will be safe from drastic cutbacks in public services and a huge expansion of gambling.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our efforts throughout the weeks ahead.

We are pleased to announce that we are now working together with other Eyman opponents to work for reform in the initiative process and promote good ethics for signature gatherers.

Since 1999, Tim Eyman’s initiative factory has churned out a number of proposals which have done nothing to create real tax reform and have instead caused major cuts and reductions in public services.

Tim Eyman is always quick to point out that we are highly taxed and that taxes have “skyrocketed” since 1980 or whatever other date he dreams up. Has Tim ever gone back to look to check at the increase in services the state has experienced, or the increasing number of citizens the state must serve?

Better education, higher quality fire protection, new libraries, clean pools, and green parks are just some of the things our tax dollars pay for. But many voters don’t equate dramatically lower taxes with drastic cuts in public services.

That’s often because voters don’t know the truth about what they’re signing and what they’re voting for. Many voters don’t realize that their signature is just like their primary vote.

And with out-of-state mercenaries patrolling Washington’s strip malls and public gatherings, hunting for primary “votes” so they can be paid, we see a system in which proponents are able to deceive voters into signing on for their plan without any critical voice to balance the petitioners’ quick sales pitch.

These proposals aren’t just minor changes in Washington’s tax structure. What’s possibly the largest rollback in local property taxes in state history is being sold to voters without any mention of the consequences- namely, horrific cuts in public services.

Or the fact that the largest expansion of gambling in the state’s history, which legalizes 19,000 new slot machines and means that your local neighborhood bar or bowling alley can become a mini casino, is being touted primarily as a state property tax cut.

Indeed, Tim Eyman’s I-864 and I-892 do so much damage that it’s impossible for any concerned citizen not to take action. Permanent Defense, a group of longtime concerned citizens which counts over two dozen Washingtonians from all walks of life, age, and political belief among its membership, believes that voters must have access to all the information in order to make an informed decision.

To fulfill its vision of aiding taxpayers and alerting voters, Permanent Defense is joining other Eyman opponents in an effort to get the information to voters who need it, and to spread the word about the shortcomings of the initiative process and the dangers of I-864 and I-892.

We cannot simply exist as a voice on the Internet. We must do our part to get the message to voters this year.

Our mission will not be simple and it will not be easy. If we do not create a strong spirit of action and become more involved, we will lose to Eyman again.

We have been working hard to get the message out to an increased number of people, as have a number of Permanent Defense members. We are proud of our efforts, and we thank those who have stepped forward.

But we have a ways to go. July 2nd is a little over a month away, and this is the last stage of the campaign. Your help is needed now. Our new working relationship with other Eyman opponents gives you access to a wider array of resources, and allows us to work with people who have the same goal that we do.

The new Voter Education Center includes a great deal of useful information, including a couple new flyers and a voter awareness handout that you can download.

The Release Center has been updated with a number of new links and downloads, as has the Action Center. These three centers will serve as online hubs for the last great stage in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiatives 892 . These three centers will serve as online hubs for the last stage in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiatives 892.

There are many ways for you to get involved. You can volunteer with us to help aid voters, report signature gathering activity when you see it by calling 1-800-856-2465, and spread the word in your community by downloading our flyers and distributing them among family, friends, and neighbors.

Even the smallest effort helps to make a difference. Working together, we can achieve victory this year and ensure that our communities will be safe from drastic cutbacks in public services and a huge expansion of gambling.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our efforts throughout the weeks ahead.