Citizens in Charge

The saga in Washington state over whether or not to make public the names and personal information of referendum petition signers continues. The U.S. Supreme Court is looking into the matter, but some in Washington don’t want to wait. They want this information public, and they want it now.

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle filed a bill for the next session that would make it a specific law that the names, home addresses, and signatures of those citizens who sign a petition are made public. What kind of precedent would this set?

The debate in Washington has been centered around the “everything but marriage” bill and referendum. This is a hotly contested issue wherever it comes up and Washington has been no different. I suspect that those who are suddenly calling for complete transparency with regards to petition signatures are only doing it to discourage people from signing any sort of gay marriage related petition ever again.

This is an issue much larger than equal rights in the state of Washington, and shouldn’t be viewed through a partisan lense. If this becomes law or the precedent is set that this information is public, what is to stop people from harassing those who don’t agree with them on the issue at hand?

This recent opinion piece in The Spokesman-Review doesn’t really explain anything overly good that will come of making all these names public, and doesn’t mention the fact that opposition to the gay marriage referendum want the names reseased for the express purpose of putting all the petition signer information on the internet. I wonder why that might be? So they can be harassed perhaps? What else would those calling for making signatures public possibly have to gain?

Government accountability and openness is a good thing, I don’t think many would argue with that. But a citizen exercising their First Amendment rights by signing a petition is by no means a government entity, and plastering their name and home address all over the internet because a certain section of the populace doesn’t agree with the petition they signed is not right.