Another attack on initiative rights

A wrongheaded attack on paid signature gatherers is under way again in the Legislature. House Bill 2019, sponsored by Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, and House Bill 2601, by Rep. Sam Hunt, D-Olympia, would constrict people's First Amendment rights to petition their government.

HB 2019 would require each signature gatherer to put his name and home address on the petition.

HB 2601 would require paid gatherers to register and provide an ID photo for each ballot measure. It would instruct the secretary of state not to count any signatures submitted by people if they hadn't followed these new rules, or if they had been convicted of fraud or a sex offense in the previous five years.

This sounds like it is protecting the public, but it is not. There is no great problem of fraudulent signatures. The Office of the Secretary of State checks signatures, and if the signatures are not valid, it doesn't count them. No measure has gotten onto the ballot by the use of phony names.

Under HB 2601, if the signature gatherer had committed a sex offense years before, all the signatures he collected could be thrown out. Why is it so important to forbid former sex offenders from standing in front of supermarkets — but only if they are paid?

Why make the citizen who signed the petition the one to lose his rights because of something the signature gatherer did years before?

These bills are not aimed at making democracy better. They are aimed at infecting it with rigmarole and risk, and thereby restricting it, so that certain measures never reach the ballot.

These ideas were defeated last year, and they should be defeated once again.