More signatures needed to qualify initiatives

There's a bit a bad news today for those planning to push an initiative in 2013: you're going to need to turn in more signatures to get on the ballot.

The Secretary of State's Office announced today the minimum number of valid signatures of registered voters needed to qualify a measure will be 246,372, up from the current figure of 241,153.

The minimum for a referendum is climbing too. It will be 123,186, up from 120,577.

Here's the reason, as explained in a memo from Patrick McDonald, assistant to Secretary of State Sam Reed:

In accordance with Article II, Section 1 of the Washington State Constitution and RCW 29A.72.150, the number of signatures of legal voters on a petition measure is determined by the total votes cast for the office of Governor at the preceding election. Signature petitions for initiatives must be equal to or exceed eight percent of the total governor vote and four percent for a referendum.

If you want to do the math, the total number of votes cast for the office of governor in last month's election was 3,079,639.