This bill adds new sections to chapter 29A.72 RCW and amends RCW 29A.72.110, 29A.72.120, and 29A.72.130 to change petition form requirements and circulation procedures. It requires each person who circulates an initiative or referendum petition sheet to sign the circulator declaration on every sheet, with printed fields for signature, date, address, state, and county, and a statement that the sheet was reviewed and signers knowingly provided true information without compensation or promise of compensation. The amended form language also notifies signers that forgery of petition signatures is a class C felony under chapter 29A.84 RCW and that offering consideration to induce a signature is a gross misdemeanor, and it notes that RCW 9A.46.020 applies to harassment of circulators. The bill creates a procedural verification requirement for the Secretary of State when validating initiative and referendum signatures: the residence address on the petition or paper must match the residence address on the signer’s affidavit of voter registration or a prior affidavit of voter registration. A signature must not be counted if the residence address does not match, if the petition lacks the required residence information, or if required information is missing; minor address discrepancies (for example, an incomplete or inaccurate apartment or unit number) must not, by themselves, invalidate a signature. A signature invalidated under this provision does not affect other signatures on the same petition, and address verification performed as part of statistical sampling under RCW 29A.72.230 satisfies this requirement. Type of legal change: these are procedural and form requirement changes and additions to statutory verification duties rather than creation of a new crime. The provisions restate existing criminal penalties as warnings on petition forms (forgery as a class C felony; inducing signatures by payment as a gross misdemeanor) and reference application of harassment penalties under RCW 9A.46.020. The provided extracts do not show any new penalties or additional enforcement mechanisms beyond these form warnings and verification procedures. Uncertainties: the amendment text for RCW 29A.72.130 is incomplete in the extracts, and the bill’s implementation details, administrative procedures for carrying out address matching, and any effective dates or other enforcement provisions are not shown in the provided material.

If enacted, people who circulate initiative and referendum petition sheets will have to sign the circulator declaration on every sheet and face clearer criminal warnings on the form, while each signer must list the residence address where they are registered. The secretary of state will check that the residence address on each petition matches the address on the signer’s voter registration and will not count signatures that lack a match or required information, though small errors like a missing apartment number should not disqualify a signature. This will likely reduce the number of valid signatures on some petitions and make it harder for campaigns to qualify measures unless they ensure strict address accuracy. The groups most affected are petition circulators (greater legal exposure and a new duty to sign each sheet), campaigns and proponents (higher risk that gathered signatures will be invalidated and likely higher compliance and training costs), and the secretary of state and election officials (added verification duties and workflow changes). The bill leaves implementation details unclear—how exact matching is done, what other discrepancies count as “minor,” and timing or procedures for verification—so agencies and campaigns will need guidance before knowing the full operational or cost impacts.