MARIJUANA-INITIATIVE BACKERS LOSE ROUND

A judge yesterday rejected a motion by backers of a Seattle pro- marijuana
initiative to force the city to place it on the November ballot.

Backers of Initiative 75 had sued the city, claiming officials had erred in
tossing out too many signatures and had failed to adhere to deadlines
requiring speedy verification of the petitions.

But while King County Superior Court Judge James Doerty had questions on
why some of the signatures were invalidated, he said it was not clear there
were enough valid ones to warrant placing the measure on the ballot. Doerty
also noted that because the lawsuit was against city officials, it had no
authority over the county, which validates the signatures.

As a result, backers of the initiative are left to scramble to gather more
signatures and are running out of time to guarantee a spot on the November
ballot. Signatures have to be certified by the county by Sept. 20 for the
measure to get on the Nov. 5 ballot.

I-75 would direct the police department to make marijuana offenses the
"lowest priority" of Seattle police. It would also require the city to
report all marijuana arrests to an 11-member panel that would report to the
City Council.

Over the past several months, supporters submitted 29,626 signatures to the
city, which turned them over to the county elections department for
verification.

On Tuesday, Julie Anne Kempf, county elections superintendent, reported
that at least 12,871 of those signatures had been found to be invalid.

Doerty said the county erred if it tossed out all instances of duplicate
signatures. State law requires that the first signature be kept and the
rest be invalidated.

Kempf said duplicate signatures were counted two ways: once where one
duplicate signature was kept and the other where all duplicate signatures
were tossed. She said even when some of the duplicate signatures were kept,
the petition fell 357 signatures short of the 17,228 required to make the
ballot.

Most of the invalid signatures were from people who didn't live in Seattle,
didn't write down their address or whose names were illegible, she said.
She said the measure's backers had gathered many signatures at festivals
such as Hempfest and the Bite of Seattle, where many out-of-town voters
signed them.

Initiative backers were left fuming. Attorney Patrick Brick said the
failure to certify the petitions would lead to "wholesale
disenfranchisement" of "every voter in the city of Seattle."

Doerty yesterday ordered the city clerk to send a report on the petition
signatures to the City Council, which could choose to place the measure on
the ballot.

Meanwhile, Dominic Holden, campaign manager for the Sensible Seattle
Coalition, said supporters would continue to gather more signatures in the
hopes of getting enough to qualify.