BILL REQ. #:  H-0409.1 

Read first time 01/17/2005.   Referred to Committee on State Government Operations & Accountability.

     AN ACT Relating to initiative and referendum petitions; and amending RCW 29A.72.100.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 29A.72.100 and 2003 c 111 s 1811 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The person proposing the measure shall print blank petitions upon single sheets of paper of good writing quality (including but not limited to newsprint) not less than ((eleven)) eight and one-half inches in width and not less than ((fourteen)) eleven inches in length. Each petition at the time of circulating, signing, and filing with the secretary of state must consist of not more than one sheet with numbered lines for not more than twenty signatures, with the prescribed warning and title, be in the form required by RCW 29A.72.110, 29A.72.120, or 29A.72.130, and have a readable, full, true, and correct copy of the proposed measure printed on the reverse side of the petition.
     (2) Nothing in this section prohibits the person proposing the measure from making the blank petition available in electronic form to persons intending to print and circulate petitions, as long as the electronic form is secured so that the blank petition may not be altered by a person of ordinary skill before printing. The secretary of state may make the electronic form of the blank petition available for download from the secretary of state's web site.
     (3) The secretary of state shall adopt rules establishing readability standards, including, but not limited to, the minimum font size of the text used on petitions.