Washington Amendments to Public Records Act Initiative (2019)

Washington Amendments to Public Records Act Initiative
Election date November 5, 2019
Topic Government accountability
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Washington measuresWashington Initiative 976Washington Washington Referendum 88Washington Senate Joint Resolution 8200Washington Advisory Vote 20Washington Advisory Vote 21Washington Advisory Vote 22Washington Advisory Vote 23Washington Advisory Vote 24Washington Advisory Vote 25Washington Advisory Vote 26Washington Advisory Vote 27Washington Advisory Vote 28Washington Advisory Vote 29Washington Advisory Vote 30Washington Advisory Vote 31Submit

The Washington Amendments to Public Records Act Initiative (versions 1645 or 1652) was not on the ballot in Washington as an Initiative to the People, a type of initiated state statute, on November 5, 2019.

This initiative was designed to amend the state's Public Records Act to require communications, documents, and records of state legislators and legislative staff to be made available as public records.

Text of measure

Ballot title

Initiative 1645 ballot title
“ Initiative Measure No. 1645 concerns application of the public records act to the legislature. This measure would require the state legislature, including legislators, to comply with the public records act and make past, current, and future public records publicly available after the effective date of this act. Should this measure be enacted into law? ”

Initiative 1652 ballot title
“ Initiative Measure No. 1652 concerns open public meetings and retention and disclosure of legislative records. This measure would expand the public disclosure and records retention obligations of the Legislature and individual legislators; apply open meetings laws to the Legislature, and require recording of executive sessions of governing bodies. Should this measure be enacted into law? ”

Ballot summary

Initiative 1645 ballot summary

“ This measure would amend the public records act to require the state legislature to comply with the act and make past, current, and future public records publicly available after the effective date of this measure. It would define the term “state legislature” to mean the state legislative branch and its houses, members, offices, employees, and agencies, and expand the kinds of public records held by the legislature that would be subject to the act. ”

Initiative 1652 ballot summary

“ This measure would amend the Public Records Act to require the Legislature and individual legislators to make past, current, and future public records publicly available. It would require retention of reports and correspondence made, received, or directly controlled by individual legislators according to state records retention laws. It would also amend the Open Public Meetings Act to require that executive sessions of governing bodies be recorded, and would apply the Act to the Legislature. ”

Full text

• The full text of Initiative 1645 is available here.
• The full text of Initiative 1652 is available here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Washington

The state process

In Washington, the number of signatures required to qualify a directly initiated state statute—called an Initiative to the People in Washington—for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last regular gubernatorial election. Initial filings for direct initiatives cannot be made more than 10 months before the general election at which their proposal would be presented to voters. Signatures must be submitted at least four months prior to the general election.

The requirements to get an Initiative to the People certified for the 2019 ballot:

• Signatures: 259,622 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 5, 2019.

The secretary of state verifies the signatures using a random sample method. If the sample indicates that the measure has sufficient signatures, the measure is certified for the ballot. However, if the sample indicates that the measure has insufficient signatures, every signature is checked. Under Washington law, a random sample result may not invalidate a petition.

Details about this initiative

• Tim Eyman submitted the initiative on January 7, 2019. A ballot title and summary were issued for it on January 16, 2019.
• Signatures for the initiative were not submitted before the deadline on July 5, 2019.

See also

2019 measures

• 2019 ballot measures
• Government accountability on the ballot
• State legislatures measures on the ballot
• 2019 petition deadlines

Washington

• Washington ballot measures
• Washington initiative laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls
• Ballot measure signature costs

External links

• Initiative 1645 full text