(The Center Square) – More than 242,000 Washington voters have signed petitions for an initiative that hopes to repeal the state’s new income tax as organizers seek to break the all-time signature record.
Let’s Go Washington, the political committee behind IP26-645 announced late Tuesday that 242,699 people have signed petitions through the third week of gathering.
LGW hopes to secure more than 400,000 signatures by July 2 to get the measure qualified by the Secretary of State for the November ballot.
While only 308,911 valid voter signatures are needed for the measure to make the ballot, but the group is aiming to gather many more to account for duplicates, invalid signatures, or challenges.
The record for signatures in the state is just under 700,000, and some organizers have said the goal is to exceed that number.
The initiative aims to repeal the 9.9% tax on household income above $1 million (SB 6346) passed in 2026 and to prohibit future income taxes.
“The enthusiasm is absolutely through the roof. People are coming out and signing this, and it’s absolutely not partisan, despite what anybody else is trying to make this out to be,” said LGW Spokesman Darren Littell in an interview with The Center Square.
Harassment and assaults on signature gatherers continue, similar to attacks last year on those gathering signatures for two other LGW initiatives already qualified for the November ballot.
Those concern the protection of girls in sports and parental rights related to school notification.
In an X post Tuesday, a man is seen stealing petitions from a signature gatherer and appearing to assault the woman outside inside a Puyallup Safeway.
“Unfortunately, we’re still getting people coming out, trying to vandalize, trying to harass gatherers, which is a misdemeanor and people can be arrested for it,” said Littell. “So, again this is an opportunity for elected officials to show leadership, and they’re just totally failing on it.”
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown has faced criticism for not coming out more strongly with condemnation against those attacking signature gatherers.
“Nick Brown put out some watered-down milquetoast statement, ‘hey, please, please don’t do it.’ He needs to actually step up and do the right thing,” said Littell.
While Brown’s office did last year say the violence was “unacceptable”, he stated that under most circumstances, his office does not have the jurisdiction to conduct investigations or initiate criminal proceedings against individuals. He advised victims to call local law enforcement.
Several individuals who vandalized petitions or threatened and assaulted petition gatherers last year were arrested and charges were forwarded to local prosecutors.
With less than five months until the election, Littell says they do have concerns about how ballot titles and impact statements for each of the already qualified initiatives will appear to voters.
“I think people can just ask themselves if you are fundamentally against the rights of girls to have their own sports, and if you’re fundamentally against the idea that parents should be involved in their kids’ school, and then you’re asked, how would you write a statement about it or how would you describe that? Are you going to be fair and neutral about it? I think that people would come down and say probably not. And so that’s really the challenge,” said Littell.
The Center Square did reach out to Brown’s office for comment on Littell’s suggestion that the ballot titles and impact statements may not be neutral and received this response via email from Deputy Communications Director Mike Faulk.
“Mr. Littell’s comments are utterly disingenuous. Those for and against ballot initiatives have the opportunity to challenge the ballot titles,” wrote Faulk. “Let’s Go Washington didn’t challenge either of these, and in one case intervened to defend the title we had written.”
“Regarding trans kids in sports: A group opposed to the initiative challenged it claiming what we wrote was too biased in favor of the measure. Let’s Go WA intervened to defend the title we had written, which was upheld,” he said.
“Regarding parental rights: Once again, a group opposed to the initiative challenged the language we wrote claiming it was too biased in favor of the measure. Once again, the language we wrote was upheld.”
There will be pro and con statements for the initiatives in the voter’s pamphlet which could offer voters additional insight.
The Secretary of State provided names of those individuals to The Center Square this week.
Those providing statements in support of both initiatives include parental rights advocate and citizen journalist Alesha Perkins, and North Thurston School District teacher Travis Reep, who was featured on national media earlier this year for pushing back on the state teacher’s union.
Courtney Normand will write con statements on the initiatives. She is the Washington state director for Planned Parenthood.
Jaime Fineman-McKinney, a school counselor in the Franklin Pierce School District will also provide a con statement in the voter’s pamphlet for the initiative aimed at restoring the parental bill of rights.
Fineman-McKinney initially agreed to an interview with The Center Square but could not be reached before publication.
