My battles to ban those obnoxious ticketing cameras was when judges started to ban the voters from expressing their opinions. Big shift from precedent.

–

Thurs, Sept 29, 2022

This year, Bob Ferguson and the state supreme court conspired to block the voters from voting on Inslee and the Democrats’ $3.9 billion Cap & Trade bill in November.

The lower court judge agreed that the law required a public vote — an advisory vote on this huge tax increase.

But Ferguson freaked out and got the state supreme court to order the judge to rule differently than he wanted to (story about it here) and they blocked the people from voting on it.

In my legal filings, I highlighted that the state supreme court had previously and consistently upheld the right to vote on ballot measures.

When did this shift toward blocking votes start?

Let me take you back to 2010.

The city council in my hometown of Mukilteo voted to bring in those obnoxious automatic ticketing cameras (red-light cameras, speed cameras).

We filed a local initiative to ban them.

We got more than enough signatures to qualify.

The ticketing camera company filed a lawsuit to block the vote.

The lower court judge refused to block it:

“I don’t know how voters are going to vote on this but I see no harm in letting them vote.”

What did voters have to say?

71% of voters rejected the cameras by voting yes.

As a result of that vote, there are no ticketing cameras in Mukilteo.

(Parenthetically, because of the success of this initiative and the success of our statewide initiative requiring a 2/3 vote of the Legislature to raise taxes, a national group called the Sam Adams Alliance named me National Activist of the Year. It was a real honor — at a dinner ceremony in Chicago, they gave me their most prestigious award:

After the passage of Mukilteo’s initiative, we sponsored local initiatives in Bellingham, Monroe, Longview, and Redmond.

All were successful — to this day, there are no ticketing cameras in any of those cities either.

We were ready to tackle this issue city by city.

But all these battles spurred more litigation and those appeals led to a very frightening ruling:

The court ruled that when it comes to this particular topic, the voters may not discuss it, learn about it, vote on it, or even express an opinion on it. 

Sound familiar?

That’s exactly what they just said about Inslee and the Democrats’ $3.9 billion Cap & Trade bill.

In 2005 and 2007, all 9 judges on the state supreme court believed in the people’s right to vote on issues.

Their reason? From one of their unanimous rulings:

“Because ballot measures are often used to express popular will and to send a message to elected representatives, substantive pre-election review unduly infringes on free speech.”

Nearly 20 years later, this state supreme court has completely abandoned that principle — they don’t even support the people’s right to express an opinion.

It’s infuriating.

Yet despite all the roadblocks thrown in our path, we continue to fight for the taxpayers.

And we continue to score victories.

I’m urging you — while I’m fighting to help our state and our nation — to please donate to my legal defense fund.

Mail-in donation: Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund, 500 106th Ave NE #709, Bellevue, WA, 98004
Or donate online:
By GiveSendGo (credit/debit card)
By PayPal
By PayPal (credit/debit card)

And now a message from Larry Jensen & Sid Maietto:

We’re asking folks to donate to our PAC so we can keep fighting for taxpayers with Jim Walsh’s initiative I-1491, the STOP ALL INCOME TAXES INITIATIVE.

The taxpayers of Washington need our help now more than ever. Donate to our political committee so we can keep  fighting for you:

Mail your check — made payable to “Permanent Offense I-1491” — to: Permanent Offense, PO Box 6151, Olympia, WA, 98507
Or donate online: PermanentOffense.com

Kindest Regards,

Sid Maietto & Larry Jensen

— END —

Thanks everyone.

Larry, Tim, & Sid

P.S. Again, please donate to my legal defense fund today:

Mail-in donation: Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund, 500 106th Ave NE #709, Bellevue, WA, 98004
Or donate online:
By GiveSendGo (credit/debit card)
By PayPal
By PayPal (credit/debit card)